The Crow: Spirit Bullet
by Rider Paladin
Summary: AU. When the end of the Dark Tournament results in death for two Spirit Detectives, a mystical crow will ensure that the wrong things are set right. Rated for extreme violence, profanity, and sexuality.
1. Prologue: The Spirit Detective's Fall

"The Crow: Spirit Bullet" 

Prologue: "The Spirit Detective's Fall" 

Disclaimer: Yu Yu Hakusho belongs to Yoshihiro Togashi. The Crow is the property of James O'Barr.

Author's note: My frequent writing collaborator The Wolf God recently gave me a challenge: Write a Crow fic based in Yu Yu Hakusho. I merrily took up his gauntlet and now I'm writing this story for you, my readers. Don't expect the main character to meet Robin or Yami Yugi, as this story is not in the same universe as "Black Robin" or "Yu-Gi-Crow." Also, this prologue is a retelling of the fight between Yusuke and Toguro in the Dark Tournament finals, with a shocking twist.

_How the fuck did I get here?_ Yusuke Urameshi asked himself as he fought Toguro. As they fought, he began to remember.

He remembered how he and Kuwabara had teamed up to save the ice maiden Yukina from the clutches of a human crime lord named Tarukane, a wicked man who tortured her because her tears would become the Hiruiseki Stones, rare diamonds that could be sold on the black market for millions, maybe billions. In the course of that mission, they had encountered many demons that worked for Tarukane, the deadliest of all being the Toguro Brothers.

Yusuke and Kuwabara thought they'd bested the demonic duo, but as they later discovered, the match had been rigged. The Toguro Brothers had thrown the fight because their _real_ employer, Sakyo, had set up the whole thing to bring about Tarukane's downfall. Toguro challenged the Spirit Detectives --- Yusuke, Kuwabara, and the demons Kurama and Hiei --- to participate in the Dark Tournament, a demonic fighting contest. Refusal was no option, since they were the invited guests and if they refused, they would be hunted down and killed.

Team Urameshi had battled through some of the toughest demons around: Team Rokuyukai, the trio of brainwashed human fighters known as Team Ichigaki, the demon ninja known collectively as Team Masho, Team Urautogi, and now Team Toguro.

The foursome, fivesome if one considered the Masked Fighter, had endured so much on the way to the finals. Hiei had unleashed his Dragon of the Darkness Flame, only to end up crippling his arm and being unable to fight in the next two matches. However, that had been no fault of his, just simple trickery on the part of their opponents and the vile tournament committee. Kurama had rediscovered his full power as the demon fox Yohko Kurama. Kuwabara had frequently lost his fights, although one was due to trickery and the rest to simply being surprised by his opponents' techniques. As for Yusuke, he had grown even stronger, especially when the Masked Fighter, later revealing herself to be his mentor Genkai, gave him her Spirit Wave Orb, thus passing most of her power onto him.

Unfortunately for Genkai, passing on the Spirit Wave Orb had left her too weak to fight Toguro when he had come for her. With one punch, he had fatally wounded her and she died in Yusuke's arms.

This was why Yusuke was fighting Toguro now. He was fighting to avenge Genkai's murder.

"Is this the best you can do, Yusuke?" Toguro asked.

"I suppose you're right," Yusuke replied. "I was kinda arrogant to think I could beat you with these on." That said, he removed his wristbands, revealing golden coils around his wrists. Another pair of golden coils appeared around his ankles.

"Wow!" Koto shouted. "I suppose you'd have to be pretty brave to wear golden bracelets and anklets in a Dark Tournament!"

"Nice fashion statement," Koenma's blue servant ogre commented.

"Spirit Cuffs?" Hiei asked. "Is he insane?"

"What's the big deal with those Spirit Cuffs?" Kuwabara asked.

"Those golden coils around Yusuke's wrists and ankles keep his spirit energy at a certain level," Kurama replied. "If he removes them now, then his energy will rise even higher."

Yusuke stared at Toguro, remembering just how he'd gained his Spirit Cuffs. Genkai had placed them around his wrists and ankles, binding him. Yusuke had struggled with all his might to move, but to no avail.

"Don't you get it, slacker?" Genkai had asked. "Your physical strength can only go so far. But your spirit power can reach levels beyond human comprehension."

Yusuke had channeled his spirit energy and with that he had finally been able to move with the Spirit Cuffs.

"If you want to go to the bathroom, pick your nose, or even walk, you'll have to maintain your full strength as long as you have those Spirit Cuffs," Genkai had told him. "Once I give you the full power of the Spirit Wave Orb, the Spirit Cuffs will keep your power at the level that it's at now. Until you say the code word that will release the Spirit Cuffs."

"And what's the code word?" Yusuke had asked.

"Outburst," Genkai had replied. "Say that, and the Spirit Cuffs will release their hold on you. You will know when it's time."

In the present, Yusuke smirked at Toguro. "I think it's time you got a taste of my full power, you murdering son of a bitch."

"Really?" Toguro asked. "Then let's see it."

"Outburst!" Yusuke shouted. Instantly, the Spirit Cuffs disintegrated, and Yusuke's power broke out. Massive blue energy emanated from him, shaping itself into a phoenix.

"Holy shit!" Chu shouted.

"What kind of power is that?" Touya asked.

"The kind that looks like it oughtta do some damage," Jin replied. "When your wind looks like a phoenix, that's what it'll do."

"Is that Urameshi's full power?" Kuwabara asked.

"Apparently," Hiei replied.

"Are you happy now?" Yusuke asked. Suddenly, he vanished.

"Where'd he go?" an audience member asked.

Yusuke reappeared in the air and in Toguro's face, assaulting him with a battery of vicious punches. His fists moved in a nigh-invisible blur.

"He's gotten even faster!" Kuwabara remarked. "Hell, he might even be faster than you, half-pint!"

Hiei grunted in incoherent dismissal.

Meanwhile, the four girls watched in amazement at Yusuke's newly revealed powers. "Yusuke'll win now," Keiko proclaimed confidently.

"One-two! Toguro's done!" Botan cheered.

"I wouldn't be so sure of that," Shizuru contradicted, ever the voice of reason.

"What makes you say that, Shizuru?" Yukina asked.

Finally, Yusuke punched Toguro out of the ring, creating a decently sized crater. He leaped in, ready to finish the job, only to back away when he saw the look in Toguro's eyes.

_That look in his eyes,_ he thought. _It's like he's saying with his eyes that he's still in control of this fight._

"I don't believe it," Koto said. "Yusuke was dominating the match, and now he's backing away like a scared little girl!"

"I don't know," the blue ogre said. "Maybe he's got some kind of secret strategy."

Toguro smiled coldly at Yusuke and he rose to his feet from the crater.

"His muscles," Kuwabara said. "They're all normal size again!"

"Ah, this is what I've been looking for, Urameshi," Toguro intoned. "You _are_ worthy after all."

"Of what?" Yusuke asked defiantly, or at least, he hoped it sounded that way.

"Of my full power," Toguro replied. His spirit energy spiked tremendously, creating a storm of power around him.

"What the hell is going on?" Rinku asked.

"Language, Rinku," Chu scolded.

At the peak of the storm of energy surrounding Toguro, darkness consumed everything. Within the darkness, Toguro's body reshaped and remolded itself.

_I should have attacked him before all this started,_ Yusuke thought, _and yet I'm not scared at all. If anything, I'm anticipating what Toguro's got in store for me._

"Are you ready to die now, Urameshi?" Toguro asked.

The darkness faded, allowing everyone present to see Toguro at full power. He was a terrifying sight to behold, his skin a hard, rocky gray color and small, volcano-like ridges sticking out of his shoulders.

"So this is your full power," Yusuke mocked. "I'm not impressed, Toguro."

"Don't get cocky with me, boy," Toguro answered. Something shifted underneath the skin of his right arm and emerged from his thumb. Then Toguro flicked that something at Yusuke with a speed almost surpassing that of thought.

Yusuke cried out in unanticipated pain as that something impacted against him, sending him flying back into a wall. "What the hell was that?"

"A bullet," Toguro replied. "Unlike the bullets of your Spirit Gun, mine have no limit. See?" He started firing skin bullets at Yusuke, one after another in rapid succession. Yusuke was moving quickly as well, blocking all the skin bullets that came at him.

"This is crazy," Kuwabara said.

Finally, Yusuke tired of blocking Toguro's bullets and came after him, punching him at hyper-speed. Toguro let Yusuke punch him for a minute or so, and then grabbed the Spirit Detective by the throat.

"Scared of me yet?" he asked with a cruel smirk.

"Yeah, right," Yusuke managed to reply. "Scared of a rock-faced freak like you? In your dreams."

"Toguro's got Yusuke in what's _got_ to be a painful hold, and yet he won't surrender!" Koto exclaimed. "Man, is this kid a glutton for punishment or what?"

"You're a fool not to fear me, Yusuke," Toguro stated. "Fear is what makes you stronger. Without the fear that you will be beaten, that you will die, you will never get stronger." That said, he threw Yusuke across the stadium and Yusuke impacted against a wall.

"Ooh, that's gotta hurt!" Koto exclaimed with cheerfully sadistic delight.

Yusuke just got up and came after Toguro again. However, Toguro simply would not go down. In fact, he gave no sign of feeling the blows Yusuke rained upon him.

Finally, Toguro punched him in the stomach, eliciting a choking gasp from the Spirit Detective. Then he followed up with a vicious backhand to the face, sending Yusuke spinning into involuntary flight.

"This doesn't look good for Yusuke," Koenma said.

"As it is now, it does not look as though he will be able to stand against Toguro for very long," Kurama added.

"Come on!" Kuwabara protested. "Urameshi will win! We've come too far to lose now!"

Yusuke removed himself from the ground and glared at Toguro, ready to fight some more. However, something made him pause.

Energy was emanating from Toguro, seeming to fill the entire stadium. Then something truly horrifying happened.

Demons in the audience started to scream in pain as they felt something being torn out of them. It didn't take them long to realize that something was their very souls. Those who remained in the audience watched with horror.

"What is happening to them?" Keiko asked.

In the devastated arena, Yusuke asked the same question, but of Toguro and with more outrage than horror.

"What the fuck are you doing, Toguro?!"

"Maintaining maximum power can take quite a toll on this body," Toguro replied calmly as the souls were absorbed into him through the volcano-like protrusions on his shoulders. "So I have to absorb the souls of others in order to keep it up."

"Aw, shit!" one demon exclaimed. "We better make a run for it!"

The demons stood up and ran for the nearest exit. Unfortunately for them, Sakyo pressed a button on a remote control he was holding. Steel walls emerged around the stadium, forming an inescapable circle.

"Fuck!" another demon cursed. "We're trapped! Trapped like fucking mice!"

"In that case, we better start rooting for that asshole human!" a third demon yelled.

"Kagu's right," a fourth demon agreed. "Urameshi may kill our kind, but at least he'll let us live if he wins. Toguro'll probably suck all our souls out for the hell of it!"

"Don't try to run again," Toguro said to the audience. "You'll just piss me and Yusuke off. We tend to have disagreeable tempers."

That statement made Yusuke's blood boil. He leaped into the air and came down with a salvo of vicious punches aimed at Toguro. "Don't _ever_ put me in the same category as you!"

Toguro just smirked chillingly as he blocked Yusuke's last attack. "Is that why you lash out at me so, Yusuke? Don't like being reminded of just how similar we really are?"

"Shut up!" Yusuke screamed. "I'm nothing like you!"

"Denial won't help you, Yusuke," Toguro intoned. That said, he threw Yusuke once again, sending him flying into a wall.

"I am not seeing this," Keiko murmured to herself. "This isn't happening." _We're back home, and Yusuke's just being an idiot and a pervert like he always is. I'm getting offended, but I'm secretly flattered. He's not surrounded by demons, fighting for his life, and I'm not watching him and being helpless to do anything._

"Keiko . . ." Botan murmured. Something made her turn, and for an instant she saw Genkai. _What was that? I could have sworn I saw Genkai for a second._

Puu watched Yusuke and Toguro fight with an unreadable expression in his eyes. Then he spoke.

"Botan."

The subject of Puu's one-word speech turned to him, startled. The reason she was so startled was that Puu had spoken in Genkai's voice.

"Genkai?" Botan asked.

Puu/Genkai turned to face Botan and the other three girls and that was when Botan knew for sure. The hard, flat expression on Puu's face could belong to none other than Genkai.

"Yusuke will not win against Toguro as he is now," Genkai said. "There's only one way for Yusuke to stand a chance against Toguro."

"And that would be?" Shizuru prompted.

Genkai flew outside the protective shield Puu had created around the girls. "Botan, Yukina, it'll be up to you to keep up the shield."

Toguro stalked over to Yusuke. "Pathetic. I expected so much more from you."

"Do I look like I give a shit about your expectations?" Yusuke asked defiantly.

"Toguro," Genkai said, floating above him and Yusuke.

"Genkai?" Yusuke asked, startled.

"Genkai," Toguro sneered. "What brings you all the way from Spirit World?"

"To tell you something important about Yusuke," Genkai replied. "The boy has a six-foot wall of crap standing between him and his true power. There is a way of forcing him to bring down that wall."

"And that would be?" Toguro prompted, echoing Shizuru's earlier words.

"He's very predictable," Genkai explained. "You want his full power unleashed? Kill one of his friends."

"What the fuck?!" Yusuke yelled. "Genkai, what the hell do you think you're doing?"

Genkai gave no response.

"An excellent idea," Toguro said. "Nothing like a little emotional pain to bring out a fighter's true potential." His lips twisted into a chilling smirk. "Now which one of your friends do you want me to kill, Yusuke? The kitsune? The fire demon? The swordsman? The ferrywoman? Or perhaps your precious girl."

"If you touch any of them, I swear I will kill you," Yusuke snarled.

"I thought you already wanted to kill me," Toguro said.

"Yeah," Yusuke admitted defiantly. "Only difference is I won't go so easy on you if you go after my friends."

"What is Genkai thinking?" Koenma asked.

"That it's better to sacrifice one than all," Hiei replied bluntly. "If one of us dies, then Yusuke's anger and pain will give him the strength he needs to finish off Toguro."

"And what if that isn't enough?" Koenma asked. "Are you saying that if that isn't enough, then it's ok to sacrifice another one?" He sighed in resignation. "There is a cold sense to it after all. I just hope Genkai knows what she's doing."

"Genkai," Yusuke said. "For the last frigging time, what the hell do you think you're doing?"

"Helping you win," Genkai finally replied. "You're not going to win the way you are now."

"When you trained me, you told me to commit to something all the way," Yusuke said. "I chose to commit to my friends. And now you're telling me it's ok to let one of them die as motivation!?"

Toguro was still ruminating on who he was going to murder in order to coax Yusuke's full power out. Finally, he made his decision.

"The girl will be my coup de grace," Toguro decided. "However, that doesn't mean that there isn't someone who means just as much to Yusuke." He chuckled insidiously. "I choose you, Kuwabara. Say your prayers now."

Yukina gasped in horror. "Oh, no . . ."

Kurama and Hiei began to advance toward Toguro, ready to protect Kuwabara as best as they could. However, Kuwabara raised an arm to stop them both.

"Don't even think about it," he growled. "I don't need your protection."

"Reconsider that, fool," Hiei spat. "Toguro intends to kill you. And you are too weak to fight him and live."

"You think I don't know that?" Kuwabara asked. "I know! But I know this as well: I'm a man, and I'm going to die like one!" That said, he unsheathed his Spirit Sword, ready to face Toguro.

"Kazuma-san," Yukina whispered.

"Bring it on, you sick motherfucker!" Kuwabara yelled. "I'm not afraid of you!"

"Then you're even more of a fool than I thought," Toguro said.

Kuwabara charged at Toguro and slashed him with the Spirit Sword. It hardly put a dent in his armor.

"My turn," Toguro growled and punched Kuwabara in the stomach. Hard. Of course, hard for Toguro meant being able to shatter a tank. Then again, given his insane strength, that could have just been an easy blow.

"Kuwabara, no!" Yusuke shouted.

Yukina stared in horror, her vision beginning to blur with tears.

Toguro removed his fist from Kuwabara's stomach, revealing a bloody hole in Kuwabara's midsection. Toguro's fist itself was covered in that same blood.

"I did the best I could, Yusuke," Kuwabara managed to utter as he fell. He was able to raise himself up just enough to look at Yusuke. "Now beat him for all of us. Make my death count." He collapsed and breathed his last breath.

Yukina turned away from the tableau, weeping. As she wept, her tears hardened into the Hiruiseki Stones, which clattered when they fell onto the arena seats.

Shizuru prided herself on being a strong woman, and yet this sight proved too much for even her to bear. Tears slid from her eyes.

"Not again," Botan murmured. "Not again. I can't have lost another friend."

Keiko was in shock. _This isn't happening. This isn't happening. Kuwabara can't be dead. He just can't, because . . . if he can die, then . . . so can Yusuke._

"Are you satisfied now?" Yusuke asked, cold rage intertwining with unbearable pain in his voice. His energy emanated from him like a cloudy flame. "She was right. I did have a six-foot wall of crap between myself and my powers. And now one of my friends is dead because of it."

"Whoa!" Koto exclaimed. "I've never seen that kind of power from anybody before, and I certainly wouldn't have expected it from a human! Will we get to see some exciting bloodshed now?"

"Should I kill another of your friends, Yusuke?" Toguro asked. "Just so I can make my point clear?"

Yusuke was in his face in what seemed like the speed of thought itself.

"You're a dead motherfucker, Toguro," he vowed, his voice soft yet powerful. "How fucking ironic. There was once a time I wanted to be like you."

"Hmm, really?" Toguro wondered curiously.

"Yeah, it's true," Yusuke admitted. "I didn't exactly have a lot of male role models growing up. The only men I ever saw were either those self-righteous excuses for teachers or those sleazebags my mother brought home for a night of meaningless fucking. You were the first older guy I could have ever looked up to. You were strong, and nobody could ever boss you around. I wanted that."

"You can have that, Yusuke," Toguro said. "Whether you want to admit it or not, you and I are the same now. We are at the same level of power. You can truly be like me. All you have to do is live for your strength alone and renounce your so-called friends."

"I will never do that," Yusuke declared. "I wasn't finished yet. I _wanted_ to be like you, until Genkai told me what you did."

Yusuke recalled Genkai's last words to him before she died.

"Toguro's wish was to be transformed from a human into the highest class of demon. Every human fights a war against time that is ultimately impossible to win. Toguro ran from that fight. Don't you ever do the same. You have to realize . . . that there is so much more at stake here. You can't be a . . . cocky kid anymore. You have to . . ."

She hadn't said anything else. How could she; she was dead.

"I will never do what you did," Yusuke vowed. "You got where you are today by throwing away everything that truly matters. I will never be like you. I may die today, but at least I'll do so knowing that I didn't sell my soul like you did."

"You are truly insufferable, Yusuke," Toguro said. "Friendship, love --- such things are not meant for those who truly wish to be great. To achieve eternal greatness, one must be willing to relinquish anything and everything."

"You're not human at all," Yusuke snarled. "I doubt you ever were." A regretful and soul-weary sigh escaped his lips. "I already swore that I would never forgive you for what you did to Genkai. But after what you did to Kuwabara, I now know that it is myself that I will never forgive."

Toguro delivered a vicious backhand to Yusuke, sending him flying into the wall. Actually, he flew half the way and bounced the other half.

"That didn't hurt you at all, did it?" Toguro deduced. "Ah, so your power has grown after all. You can actually take a hit from me without feeling pain."

Yusuke just got up, stalking toward Toguro with deadly purpose in his eyes. Toguro just stood there, unconcerned. That is, until Yusuke delivered a right cross that sent Toguro flying. He impacted on the ground a considerable distance from Yusuke.

"That was for Genkai," Yusuke said. In an extremely quick motion, he was at Toguro's side. He grabbed Toguro by his neck and pulled him up, only to punch him again. "That was for Kuwabara." He threw Toguro into the wall and lunged at him quickly, delivering a hyper-fast battery of vicious punches to him. "And all that was for the other people you murdered, you selfish, heartless son of a bitch!"

"Brutal," Koto commented. "I have never seen such a violent display of anger and grief before! I love it!"

The demon audience was now cheering for Yusuke, since he was their best hope at survival.

"Yusuke! Yusuke! Yusuke!"

"Finish Toguro!"

"Yeah, finish him!"

Toguro's lips curled into a chilling smile.

"Admirable, Yusuke," he said. "I suppose it will take more than I expected in order to defeat you."

"What is he talking about?" Koenma asked. "Isn't he already at full power?"

Hellish energy gathered around Toguro as he began to transform once again. He grew even more massive and muscular, his increasing size causing his pants to tear. His shoulder muscles expanded even further and bifurcated.

"Remember when I said I was at 100% power?" he asked. "I lied. That was more like 85%."

"You will die," Yusuke snarled.

"It's not too late, Yusuke," Toguro said. "If there's anything I've learned in all this time, to be the best, one must be willing to let go and throw everything away --- friends, family, love, even one's own humanity."

"Cut the bullshit," Yusuke snapped. "You didn't throw it away! You ran away from it!" He pointed his index finger at Toguro in a familiar gun-firing pose and held the wrist of that hand with his other hand. "I won't run. And I won't let go. If it takes everything I have, I will make sure that you go down for good! Spirit Gun!"

He fired a massive orb of spirit energy at Toguro.

"Whoa!" Koto exclaimed. "Yusuke has just fired a massive Spirit Gun blast! One way or another, this fight will be over soon!"

Toguro caught the Spirit Gun blast and balanced himself on the balls of his feet, trying his best to hold it back.

Hiei let out a muttered curse. "He is beginning to weaken."

Indeed he was. The energy fueling Yusuke's Spirit Gun was dwindling and soon he would be completely exhausted.

Yusuke struggled hard to keep the energy going, but in the end, he was too exhausted. On its own, the Spirit Gun could not overcome Toguro's insane strength. Yusuke fell to his knees.

"That . . . took almost everything I had," Toguro said. "Thank you, Yusuke, for enabling me to use my full strength for the first time. As your reward, I'll send you to join Genkai. You can say hello to her for me."

Kurama, Koenma, and Hiei blanched in horror at Toguro's words.

Toguro created a skin bullet and fired it at Yusuke's heart. As the Spirit Detective was out of energy, he couldn't block it or evade it.

Yusuke let out choking gasps of pain as he fell prostrate on the arena floor.

_I'm sorry,_ he thought. _I'm so sorry, Genkai. I'm so sorry, Kuwabara._ Tears gathered at the edges of his vision, which was quickly fading to black. _I'm sorry, Keiko, that I never told you . . . how much I . . ._

He never got to complete his thought, as it was at that moment that his life faded from him.

Keiko stared blankly, her mind refusing to grasp the concept that Yusuke was dead. Finally, her grief found expression in her tears.

"Say it ain't so," Chu uttered, shocked.

"It's so," Touya stated, the cold bluntness in his voice masking his own regret.

Jin shuddered. The one human who was the closest thing he could have had to a brother was dead.

"Not you, too, Yusuke," Botan murmured, tears in her eyes. "Not you, too."

Boiling anger rose in Hiei. Yusuke had been the one human he had actually respected. In time, they might have become friends.

"Don't," Kurama said. "I know what you want to do, and it is suicide at this point. Our only chance now is to escape from this hellhole and regroup."

"You go without me," Koenma said. "A deal's a deal. Yusuke is dead, and that means I am as well."

Koto left the announcer's booth to join Juri on the arena floor. "And the winner of the Dark Tournament is Toguro!" they announced in unison.

"Shit," one demon in the audience said. "We are so fucked."

Indeed they were. And so was the whole world.

But not all was lost. All great evils died sooner or later. One day, Toguro would be made to pay for his crimes. On that day, he would know what fear was. And then, he would no longer be able to escape death's cold embrace.

To be continued . . .

Next: Botan speaking. In the two years since Yusuke met his untimely death at Toguro's evil hands, the human world has been almost completely taken over by demons. The Spirit World has organized a resistance force, but so far, all they're doing is surviving. All that may change when a dead man rises from his grave to take vengeance upon the one who killed him. Next time in "The Crow: Spirit Bullet."


	2. Chapter 1: When a Dead Man Walks

"The Crow: Spirit Bullet" 

Chapter 1: "When a Dead Man Walks" 

Disclaimer: Yu Yu Hakusho and The Crow are not mine by any means. They belong to Yoshihiro Togashi and James O'Barr respectively.

Author's note: Ever wonder what would have happened if Yusuke had lost to Toguro in the final round of the Dark Tournament? You'll see what would have happened in this story. By the way, I got the title for this chapter from the fifth track on Lacuna Coil's album "Unleashed Memories." Check them out; they're awesome.

Previously in "The Crow: Spirit Bullet": After fighting their way through dangerous demonic foes in the Dark Tournament, Team Urameshi finally came up against Team Toguro. In an unexpected twist, Kurama lost his fight against Karasu, despite the fact that he was still alive and Karasu was dead. This left the rest of Team Urameshi to take up the slack, Hiei and Kuwabara winning their matches against Bui and the elder Toguro. Finally, it was up to Yusuke to seal their victory with the defeat of the younger Toguro. Both fighters pushed themselves to their full power, but Toguro succeeded in killing an exhausted Yusuke.

Two years had passed since Yusuke's death at Toguro's hands. Two horrible, painful years, and not just for Team Urameshi and their friends. The whole world suffered with them.

Koenma and Sakyo had both staked their own lives on the victories of their respective fighters. As Toguro had triumphed, Koenma had been required to give up his own life. Enma Daioh grieved, and he let the world feel his anguish in the form of devastating natural disasters.

That wasn't the worst of it. Sakyo had been plotting to create a permanent tunnel connecting the human world to the demon world. With Toguro's victory over Yusuke, his dream could come true, and so it had.

The demons that had escaped into the human world were far stronger than the demons that had come before. The human police and military forces were helpless against them, and even Hiei and Kurama were no match. The demons' rampage continued unabated and they eventually took over Japan. Now they were spreading throughout mainland Asia, and not just Asia.

The demonic invasion was slowly but inexorably spreading. It would only be a few more years at most before the entire world was under demon control. Of course, Sakyo controlled those demons, so it would be more accurate to say that soon the world would be under _his_ control.

In Japan, where the demons had already taken over, humans were less than nothing. The government of Japan, both national and local, was now nothing more than a bunch of figureheads. It was the demons that pulled the strings.

The humans were reduced to living in slums in the lower levels of the city, while the higher levels and the more affluent neighborhoods were reserved for demons, and not just any demons. The demons that ruled were high-class demons, and many of them used the lower-class demons as their hired guns.

Since the demons took over, the sun had never again shined on Japan. The demons had conjured a wicked black fog that blocked any sunlight. Without the sun, the plants had died, turning forests and meadows into barren wastelands.

It was now a world without hope, without heroes, without life.

During those two horrific years, Toguro had scoured the demon world, looking for four of the strongest, most vicious demons around. Of course, they couldn't be on an equal level strength-wise with him, lest one get his or her own ideas and try to overthrow him. Then again, he could use a challenge, and he hadn't had one since Yusuke.

The four demons he had found controlled opposing elements: fire and water, and light and darkness. The fire elemental was a dragon capable of taking human form, his name being Akuhi. The water elemental was a demonic sea nymph named Mizuko capable of luring unwary sailors to their deaths. The light elemental was simply named Hikari, and she could manipulate light in order to do almost anything. The dark elemental was Kagero, a warrior whose very soul was a tunnel into an endless black void that would consume the souls of anyone unfortunate enough to fall in.

These four made up his new team, and they were the most feared demons in all the worlds.

At present, Akuhi was on his way to his favorite bar. He'd just incinerated some worthless human scum suspected of working for the resistance, and he figured he could use a drink.

"Hey, Akuhi, what's shaking?" an Irish-accented male demon's voice asked. Akuhi turned and saw one of his longtime friends, an incubus named Yue. If one were to describe Yue's looks, they would have to imagine a more sinister but just as attractive version of Colin Farrell.

"Not much, Yue," Akuhi replied. "I just wasted some worthless human suspected of working for the resistance."

"Miserable pack of traitors, the resistance," Yue sneered. "I don't understand why they wanna give this world back to the humans."

"The humans had their time," Akuhi said. "Now it's over. Long live Toguro!"

As always, everyone else in the bar shouted, "Long live Toguro!" Then they resumed drinking.

"I'm going to find a girl," Yue said.

"Every night you leave this bar with a girl and never the same one either," Akuhi reflected.

"Yeah, well, there are three worlds full of hotties and I will not rest until each one of them has gotten a taste of my charms," Yue replied with a wicked smirk. "And of course, I can always take some human girl in her sleep."

"Isn't that what incubi do, anyway?" Akuhi asked. "Prey on unsuspecting sleeping females and drain their life energy?"

"Uh-huh," Yue replied. He spotted a blue-haired cat-girl some stools away. "See you later." He got off his stool and casually sidled over to her. "Hey there, gorgeous."

"Oh, hello," the cat-girl said, smiling at him.

"Mind if I buy you a drink?" Yue asked.

"Don't mind at all," the cat-girl replied.

"What would you like?" Yue asked.

"Blood-cherry soda will do it for me," the cat-girl replied.

Blood-cherry soda was a favorite among the demons who visited the bar. As to how it was made, the answer was simple: One took all the ingredients required to make soda and then added human blood to the mix.

"Bartender!" Yue called.

The bartender, a tri-horned, green-skinned, muscular demon, came up to them. "What would you like?"

"Two blood-cherry sodas," Yue replied. "One for this lovely lady right here, and one for me."

"Coming right up," the bartender said with faked enthusiasm. In truth, the bartender was among the low-class demons and they all hated the high-class demons. "The pretty ones," they called them, the ones who could pass for human. It wasn't just for their pleasing looks that the low-class demons hated the high-class demons; it was also their inveterate arrogance that made them so despised. The high-class demons got the power, prestige, and influence while the low-class demons were stuck either in menial jobs or as common thugs.

In just a minute or so, the bartender had their drinks ready. "Here you go."

Neither the cat-girl nor Yue bothered with showing any gratitude. After all, they were high-class demons and the bartender was just a low-class brute.

"So what's your name?" Yue asked.

"Nekore," the cat-girl replied.

"Nekore," Yue repeated, pronouncing it slowly, as though savoring the sound of it.

Nekore giggled. "You make my name sound so sexy."

Akuhi just sighed in resignation and activated the timer option of his digital wristwatch. It wouldn't be long before Yue escorted Nekore out of the bar and to his place for a night of wanton sex. Still, he wanted to see how long it would take this time.

It didn't take very long, only two-and-a-half minutes, really. Akuhi had long ago figured out Yue's ways. It only took three minutes or less with non-virgins, and he had to invest a minute or three more of effort with the virgins. Still, no woman was capable of resisting Yue's charms for very long.

"I could get a girl if I wanted to," Akuhi muttered to himself. _But I don't feel like it. Sex is good, but there's nothing like the rush of having some worthless dipshit's life in my hands and then crushing it. I'll take that over an orgasm any day._ Out loud, he called the bartender.

"What would you like?" he asked.

"Some bloody sake," Akuhi replied.

The bartender understood perfectly well what Akuhi meant by "bloody sake." The "bloody" wasn't there as a European vulgarity, it really was sake spiced with human blood.

"Coming right up," the bartender said. Within a minute, he had returned with Akuhi's bloody sake. "Here you go."

"Thanks," Akuhi sneered.

"You're welcome," the bartender replied, hiding his anger. If there was anything worse than not being thanked, it was being insincerely thanked. Of course, he hid his anger for one simple reason: It was a capital offense for a low-class demon to even spit upon a high-class demon, let alone actually assault one.

And Akuhi was one high-class demon no one wanted to fuck with. He was one of Toguro's appointed lieutenants and everyone knew that Toguro's lieutenants were the worst of the worst, surpassed in power only by Toguro himself. Messing with him would get the careless fool a one-way trip to the netherworld and if Akuhi didn't kill the unlucky bastard, Toguro would.

Elsewhere, Mizuko was sitting on a large rock formation emerging from the ocean. Now all she had to do was wait for a ship to come in. If there were humans aboard, then her fun could begin.

Soon enough, she saw a ship coming in her direction. Mizuko smiled cruelly and extended her spirit senses to see if there were any humans onboard. One could usually tell a human's spirit energy by just how scattered and diluted it was. As a rule, no humans who could channel their spirit energy and use it to fight were allowed to exist, for one of them might rise up and try to overthrow the system that had been established when the demons had taken over Japan. To that effect, most humans capable of channeling spirit energy were killed at a young age, when the signs first began to manifest.

_Unfortunately,_ Mizuko mused, _so many of them are still alive thanks to the resistance, hidden under our noses, being trained how to fight by those demon traitors. Time to play._

Mizuko sang her siren song, and the humans onboard that heard were helpless to resist her. The demons that ran the ship didn't care; there were always more humans they could get to work for them.

The human members of the crew went overboard and tried to swim to Mizuko, but the waves buffeted them about. The humans realized that they were being pushed toward the rocks where Mizuko sat. At first, they were delighted because they thought they could climb up the rocks and go to her. Unfortunately for them, that wasn't what actually happened.

What really happened was that the waves viciously slammed them into the rocks, killing them almost instantly. Their bodies were broken, battered, and bleeding. One human's head had been almost cracked open when it impacted against a particularly jagged rock and now it was oozing blood.

Mizuko laughed sadistically. Oh, it was just so fun to see an insignificant human life end. She dove into the ocean and glided gracefully through the water. With any luck, she might find a cute water demon to sleep with.

_Perhaps I'll find Juri,_ she thought. _I always thought she was cute._

In a skyscraper with a penthouse, Toguro was currently doing his business. Of course, his business happened to be Hikari. She moaned with pleasure as Toguro repeatedly thrust into her warm core.

Not for the first time, Toguro wondered just what had made him get involved with his light-wielding lieutenant. Not for the first time, he chided himself for asking himself such a foolish question. He didn't love Hikari, or feel any sort of affection or liking for her. She was just a convenient substitute for the departed Genkai.

She even looked like Genkai had in her youth, the same face, hair, and eyes. As for the body . . . well, that was where the two women were different. Genkai had been small and slender. Hikari was tall and curvaceous.

Toguro thrust into her one last time, and cried out his release. The name that escaped his lips as he climaxed inside her wasn't the light-manipulator's, but Genkai's. He always liked to pretend that he was making love to Genkai when he was with Hikari, and sometimes it was hard to believe that she wasn't when he looked at her. However, he would never give in to that particular illusion. Genkai was dead, taken from him by time and by his own hands.

He rolled off her and got off the bed to begin putting his clothes back on. Once he was done, he replaced his sunglasses on his face and walked out of the room.

Once he was out, he went to see his employer and partner Sakyo. If anyone wanted to know the real power behind the demon-dominated regime they all lived in, they would not have to look any further than the steel-and-reinforced glass façade of Toguro-Sakyo, Inc.

When Toguro walked in, the sight that greeted him was the scarred man being serviced by a kneeling Shizuru, dressed in a smaller, tighter version of a maid's uniform.

"Ah, hello, Toguro," Sakyo said, somehow managing to keep his composure despite the pleasure he was receiving from Shizuru's mouth. It still amazed Toguro how a mere human could stay so controlled while he was being pleasured. Then again, that was Sakyo, always in control of himself and everything else around him.

"Hello, Sakyo," Toguro answered. "How's business?"

"Business is going rather well, actually," Sakyo replied. Then he gritted his teeth, holding back a moan. "We've just finished building a new corporate headquarters in Hong Kong."

"That's good to hear," Toguro said.

Sakyo managed to keep his face from showing expression as Shizuru brought him to orgasm, but his eyes betrayed the rapture he felt. "That's enough for now, my pet."

Shizuru removed herself from between Sakyo's legs and glared at him before walking away. As for Sakyo, he just refastened his pants and allowed himself to smile in satisfaction.

"I don't see why you keep her around," Toguro mused.

"Truth be told, that is a question I often find myself asking," Sakyo admitted. "And each time, I find myself with the same answer."

"You love her," Toguro deduced.

Sakyo didn't answer that.

"You do realize that silence counts as admission, don't you?" Toguro said.

"I can't have her," Sakyo replied. "Not the way I want. I would prefer romantic dinners with her, moonlit walks on the beach, all those things people in love tend to do. However, she hates me too much and will never forgive me for being responsible for the death of her brother. So this is the only way I can have her."

"You haven't completely broken her," Toguro said.

"Of course not," Sakyo answered. "The look of hatred in her eyes after she's done servicing me is proof enough that her spirit hasn't died. And I don't want it to. Her spirit was the reason I fell in love with her. If I broke her, then the woman I love would truly be dead and all I would have is a hollow shell. I don't want that."

"Suit yourself," Toguro said. "I just thought you should know that the resistance is starting to become a serious problem instead of a mere inconvenience."

"Ah, yes, those fools in Spirit World just won't give up, will they?" Sakyo said. Then a smile slowly formed on his face. "Your lieutenants are taking care of it, aren't they?"

"Yes," Toguro confirmed. "Unfortunately, the resistance has successfully set back several of our long-term operations. However, they are only managing to maintain against us. They have not yet succeeded in causing us any severe damage."

Sakyo pondered Toguro's words. Then, after what seemed like an eternity of silence, he spoke. "But they will do so eventually, won't they?"

"You're right," Toguro admitted. "The resistance's numbers keep growing. They are rescuing humans with spirit potential and training them to fight against our forces. They have attempted to recruit demons that are dissatisfied with the way we run things, but fortunately for us, they aren't dissatisfied enough to throw in with them."

"That won't last forever, Toguro," Sakyo warned. "Eventually, some demons will become so dissatisfied that they will join the resistance, if only to spite the higher-class demons. Speaking of high-class demons, some of the softer-hearted ones have expressed disgust with the way humans are treated in our new order."

"As long as they don't take any actual action against us, I will allow them to live," Toguro said.

Just then, someone entered, a pale young woman in a black kimono with a dark red obi. Her name was Kisuri, a demon blessed --- or cursed, as some would say --- with the power to see into the future. However, it wasn't strictly one future she saw, it was many futures, as the world was full of myriad possibilities.

"Hello, Kisuri," Toguro said.

"Hello, Toguro-sama," Kisuri said.

"What did you see?" Sakyo asked.

"If you are not careful, then everything you have built will come crashing down around you," Kisuri replied. "I saw something rise from the sea. I saw it find its way here and I saw it tear down this order and bury you two in its remains."

"And what was this 'something'?" Toguro asked.

"I could not see a face," Kisuri replied. "However, I saw a shadow accompany it, a shadow with black wings."

"Kisuri, your power is to see potential futures," Sakyo said. "Your vision may not be _the_ future itself."

"Do not presume to tell me what my power is," the demonic sibyl snarled, her lovely pale features briefly distorted in anger. "I know it better than anyone. However, I cannot avoid the feeling that this may truly be the future."

Unlike most demons, Kisuri was not afraid to speak in anger to Toguro and Sakyo. As a matter of fact, she was one of the few that they would allow to speak to them in such a manner, mainly because her powers rendered her an invaluable asset to them. So they were willing to tolerate a little bold speech.

"Whatever this thing from the sea is, it will not tear down what I have built," Toguro vowed. "If it comes my way, I shall crush it with my bare hands, as I have crushed others who have dared to challenge me."

Meanwhile, Kagero was prowling the shadows, stalking his next victim.

It was a habit of Kagero's that he would follow his victims in secret before killing them. He would follow them for days, sometimes weeks if he got really interested in them, but in the end he would kill them all the same.

Right now, he was stalking a teenage human girl. She was rather pretty, with long dark hair and gray eyes. The remarkable thing about her was that unlike so many other humans, she hadn't completely given up on her life. Despite the fact that demons now dominated her country, there was still a spark in her eyes and still boldness in her step.

This girl didn't fear the demons, nor did it seem as though she hated them. Instead, she went through life with a quiet determination to survive and thrive despite them.

Toguro's regime was still newly established and thus everyone still remembered what life had been like before the demons. Many accepted their fate with quiet despair, but there were those who refused to take the demons' rule lying down. Many of them were immediately killed, while others were imprisoned and then executed shortly afterward. Some managed to escape and were now publishing underground newspapers protesting the demons' domination of Japan.

In the present, though, Kagero was stalking the girl. He'd been stalking her for the past six nights and his murderous urges were straining for expression. He imagined he might kill her the next night or the night after.

For now, he was content to keep following her. That was the excellent thing about his powers over darkness; he could become one with the shadows and thus travel through them. This he could do in two ways: "shadow-crawling," as he referred to his ability to walk through shadows, and "shadow-sliding," as he referred to his ability to teleport through shadows. The way that worked was that he could step into a shadow and then reemerge someplace else as long as there were shadows around that place.

Kagero followed the girl to a cliff that overlooked the ocean. While within the shadows, he saw a white-haired teenage boy step out to meet the girl.

"Hi, Kana," the boy said. "I was getting worried that you wouldn't show up tonight."

"I almost didn't," Kana replied, reaching up to stroke his ears gently.

That was when Kagero noticed the wolf-like ears on top of the boy's head and the wolf's tail sticking out of the back of his pants. Kagero stifled a growl of rage, for to him, a demon who fell in love with a human was the worst sort of traitor to demon-kind. One thing to fight against other demons, but to fall in love with a human? That was unforgivable in Kagero's eyes.

"I know how you feel," the (apparently) teenage wolf demon said. "I'm so sick of hiding our relationship. We love each other." He sighed. "Can't we all figure out some way to coexist without somebody trying to grind somebody else under his heel?"

_A high-class demon sympathizing with humans and having one as his lover,_ Kagero snarled in his thoughts.

Kana sighed. "It's completely unfair, and yet in some twisted way I'm grateful that all this happened."

"Why's that?" the teenage wolf demon asked.

"If all this hadn't happened, I'd have never met you, Kiba," Kana replied. "I love you."

"I love you, too," Kiba said. He held Kana's face in his hands and gently pulled her to him for a kiss.

Kagero emerged from the shadows, although his black hair and clothes rendered him nearly indistinguishable from them. "So sorry to interrupt, lovebirds."

"Kagero!" Kiba snarled.

"Ah, my reputation precedes me, I see," Kagero intoned mockingly. "You know, if there's anything I hate more than a demon traitor, it's a demon traitor _who loves humans._" He laughed cruelly. "Don't worry; I'll spare you the pain of being marked as pariahs by your respective peoples. Instead, how would you like to be together forever in the void?"

"Don't worry, Kana, I won't let him hurt you," Kiba said.

"Silly boy," Kagero sneered. "Worry about yourself." He extended his right hand to the couple and then a black hole formed in his palm, creating an unholy wind that sucked the interspecies lovers inside. The void consumed them body and soul.

_Well, that wasn't too bad,_ Kagero thought to himself. He faded into the shadows once more and then returned to the city, looking for another victim.

Botan flew on her trusty oar to Hanging Neck Island, the site of Yusuke's death, with a crow accompanying her. The crow had silently told her that they needed to go to Hanging Neck Island. Botan hadn't wanted to go there at first, since that terrible island had been the place where three of her friends had died and one more had had her heart broken and her soul shattered. However, she knew why the crow had come to her and thus she could not deny it its wish.

Finally, they were there. Botan jumped off her oar and onto shore, while the crow remained perched on the oar.

In the sea not far away from Hanging Neck Island, something wrapped in rags and weighted began to stir inside those rags. That stirring turned into a full-blown struggle and as it continued, the rags began to tear. The tearing rags revealed bare human arms, and the hands attached to those arms tore away the rest of the rags.

A human boy was revealed, one approximately 15 years old. He had black hair, some of which was hanging in his brown eyes, and was dressed in only a pair of blue fighting pants.

The boy tried to swim to the surface, only to realize that something was tethering him to the ocean floor. The boy looked down and saw the weights that had been tied to his ankles. He pointed his finger in a gun-firing pose at the rope tying his ankles to the weights.

Almost without thinking, a black light emerged in a concentrated line from the boy's finger and broke the rope. His energy was so powerful that it pushed him up through the sea at insane speeds until he finally broke through the surface. Water dripping from him, he let out a battle cry.

His energy carried him to the shore, where he collapsed from a sudden feeling of weakness.

"No . . ." he murmured. "Have to . . . get up . . ." The tide washed over him, but that didn't prevent him from dragging himself away from the water and onto dry land. He rolled over and panted.

"Yusuke?" Botan asked.

"Yusuke?" the boy echoed. "Is that my name?"

"Yes, it is," Botan replied. "Your name is Yusuke Urameshi, and you're a Spirit Detective." She extended her hand to him. "Here, take my hand."

Yusuke took her hand, and his mind was suddenly wracked by a painful flashback. In his vision, he saw his first meeting with Botan, when he had died for the first time.

"I know it hurts, Yusuke, but you have to remember," Botan said.

"You're . . . Botan," Yusuke said.

"That's right," Botan said.

"Some Grim Reaper you are," Yusuke said. "You're far too happy and peppy for the job."

"I recall you saying something like that when we first met," Botan said wryly. "Never mind. We're going to the stadium, or what's left of it."

"Ok," Yusuke said hesitantly. They walked to the stadium with the crow accompanying them. _Something about that crow feels really familiar._

On the way to the stadium, Yusuke had yet another painful flashback. This time, it was one of an old pink-haired woman dying in his arms. In his vision, he saw the man who'd done it, if a man was what one would call him.

"I will never forgive you," he had said that terrible day.

Finally, they arrived at the remains of the stadium. Once they stepped inside, more painful flashbacks wracked Yusuke's mind. In those flashbacks, he saw Kurama's fight with Karasu, Hiei's fight with Bui, Kuwabara's fight with the elder Toguro, and finally his own fight with the younger Toguro.

There were other things he remembered during those fights, like Kuwabara's pain when he discovered that Yusuke and the others had deliberately avoided telling him that Genkai was dead. However, Yusuke had avoided telling the other members of Team Urameshi as well, leaving them to discover Genkai's death for themselves. Next there was Sakyo's gamble: he would die if Toguro lost, and Koenma would die if Yusuke lost. Then there was the Genkai-possessed Puu telling Toguro to kill one of Yusuke's friends to unleash his true power.

That had been the most painful moment of his young life, seeing his friend Kuwabara murdered at the hands of Toguro. He had given it his all to avenge his friend, but in the end it hadn't been enough. Toguro had killed him, too.

Dark rage rose up from within Yusuke and a black aura surrounded him. He screamed in pain and rage and Botan took several steps back from him. The energy rose higher and higher until it became a consuming flame, causing what was left of the stadium to crumble around him and Botan.

"I'll make him pay for what he did," Yusuke snarled.

"All right, but you must come to Spirit World first so I can properly prepare you for the task ahead," Botan said. "Get on my oar."

Yusuke got on the oar with Botan and they flew to Spirit World, the crow accompanying them. Once they were in Spirit World, they soon arrived at a temple. Botan landed her oar in front of the temple and she and Yusuke got off, the crow settling on Yusuke's shoulder.

"Now let's go inside," Botan said.

She and Yusuke walked inside and once there, Botan guided him to Koenma's office. Upon entering, Yusuke's mind was wracked with yet another painful vision from the past. He saw a pacifier-sucking toddler behind the desk, giving him a mission. Later, he saw the toddler grow into a handsome teenager, albeit a handsome teenager who still sucked on a pacifier.

"Koenma . . ." Yusuke murmured. He'd never had much respect for Spirit World's prince, given that he spent most of his time in toddler form and he was an authority figure. And everyone who knew him knew how he felt about authority; that anyone in a position of it was just a liar and a hypocrite out to shove people around while sitting on their own duffs doing nothing. "It's my fault he's dead. If I'd just won my fight with Toguro like I was supposed to, then he'd still be alive."

"Things have changed since your fight with Toguro," Botan said.

"How?" Yusuke asked.

"It's been two years since Toguro killed you," Botan replied. "In that time, Sakyo has succeeded in building a permanent tunnel to the demon world and now demons have taken over Japan. They're spreading throughout mainland Asia and they're on their way to other countries. The demons control Japan, but Toguro and Sakyo control them. The demon-controlled territories are now class societies, with high-class demons being on top and low-class demons and humans on the bottom. Of course, the low-class demons are slightly higher on the food chain than humans."

"What about Hiei and Kurama, and the other guys we fought and let live?" Yusuke asked.

"Spirit World has commissioned Hiei, Kurama, Rinku, Chu, Touya, Jin, Shishiwakamaru, Suzuka, and Bui as a resistance force to take back power from Toguro and Sakyo," Botan replied. "Kurama's the leader and a damn fine one at that."

Yusuke smirked. "You said 'damn fine.' Ha! I knew you had a thing for him!"

"I didn't mean it like that," Botan corrected, although she was blushing. _But now that I think about it, he really is gorgeous._

"Back to this fucked-up mess we call reality," Yusuke said, snapping Botan out of her reverie.

"Oh, sorry," Botan said. "The point is, the resistance has been saving and training humans with high spirit potential to fight the demons. However, they're only maintaining. What they need is a weapon that can turn the tables in their favor."

"Let me guess, I'm the weapon?" Yusuke deduced. "As much as I'd love to make Toguro suffer for what he's done, I'm not going to be a tool for someone else."

"I didn't mean it like that," Botan said.

"Wait, what happened to Keiko?" Yusuke asked. "Is she all right?"

"Not really," Botan replied sadly. "Ever since you died, she's been catatonic. Hiei and Kurama have been keeping her safe, but she refuses to speak a word to anyone and she doesn't even act like she's aware of anything around her."

Yusuke's face fell.

"See that crow that's been accompanying us all this time?" Botan asked, changing the subject.

Yusuke turned to look at the crow on his shoulder. That was when he had yet another flashback, this one of a cute blue ball of fluff with a beak, floppy ears, stubby limbs, and a shock of black hair.

"Puu?" he asked.

The crow flew off his shoulder, landed on the desk, and cawed in acknowledgment.

"Yes, that's Puu," Botan confirmed. "Since he was your Spirit Beast, he was linked to you. When you died, so did he, but something unexpected happened. His soul was incarnated inside a crow and he visited me, silently telling me to go to Hanging Neck Island. His link to you must have enabled him to sense your return from the land of the dead.

"As the crow, Puu is now your link to the other side. As long as he lives, you cannot be killed by anything. You won't be able to feel pain and you'll heal from any wound. In addition, your existing spiritual powers will be greatly enhanced and you will be able to see into the souls of others, feeling their thoughts, emotions, and memories."

"Cool," Yusuke said.

"Before you begin this, you have to properly prepare yourself," Botan said. "I'll take you to the bathroom so you can cleanse yourself of all that sand and grime. Your new clothes will be waiting for you in there."

Yusuke mutely allowed Botan to guide him to the bathroom and once there, she left him alone. Yusuke showered and soaped himself vigorously, cleansing himself not just of physical dirt, but also of the detritus of his soul. Once he was finished, he stepped out, feeling like a new man with a new sense of purpose.

Yusuke looked at the clothes Botan had left for him, which looked very similar to his fighting outfit for the Dark Tournament, except that the shirt, pants, and wristbands were black. Nevertheless, he put them on and after that, the black fighter's shoes followed.

"All right, Botan, I'm all dressed up and ready to kick some ass!" he shouted upon coming out of the bathroom and into Koenma's office.

"Not just yet, Yusuke," Botan said. "There's one more thing I have to do to prepare you." She removed a bottle of hair gel from her kimono and applied to Yusuke's hair, slicking it back into his normal style. After that, she took out a paint kit.

"What are we going to do, paint a landscape?" Yusuke asked.

"It's for you, Yusuke," Botan replied.

"You're not painting any part of my body!" Yusuke protested.

"All those reborn by the crow's power must wear a special mask," Botan explained. "One that shows the world the power they possess and the power that all those who do evil must fear."

"When you put it that way, it doesn't sound so bad," Yusuke conceded.

Botan opened one case, revealing white paint. She dipped her fingers in it and rubbed them together, getting the white paint all over her hands. She touched Yusuke's face with her hands and spread the paint all over it, until everything but his eyes and lips were covered. She dipped a thin paintbrush in black paint and used it to draw a crow on Yusuke's face. Afterward, she put down the paintbrush and picked up a thicker one, dipping it in the black paint and then painting the crow with it. She took the paintbrush to Yusuke's lips and used it to paint them as well.

Her work done, she gave Yusuke a hand mirror so he could see his image. When he saw himself in the mirror, an evil smile formed on his black-painted lips. Botan stepped away from him, his smile scaring her to death.

"Thanks, Botan," he said. "But I think I can find my own way back to the human world now. Come on, Puu."

Yusuke walked out of the temple with the crow and then it flew down back to Earth. Yusuke did a swan dive off the bridge leading to the temple, following the crow.

_Toguro, you are finished,_ he thought. _It's not a good day to be a bad guy._

To be continued . . .

Next: Botan again, and this time I have some good news to report. Thanks to Puu the crow, Yusuke's back from the dead and ready for vengeance with even stronger spirit powers. His first act of vengeance seems to be drawing attention from everyone and most of those people aren't that nice. But Yusuke's pretty much invincible, so he should be all right. Right? Next time in "The Crow: Spirit Bullet."


	3. Chapter 2: Adauchi no Rei

"The Crow: Spirit Bullet"

Chapter 2: "Adauchi no Rei"

Disclaimer: Yu Yu Hakusho and The Crow do not belong to me. They belong to Yoshihiro Togashi and James O'Barr, respectively.

Author's note: Guess who's back? Back again. Yusuke's back. Back again. Expect various methods of gruesome death.

By the way, Iris Shaw from a Crow comic compilation "Flesh and Blood" inspired Yusuke's look. If you find "Flesh and Blood" in a comic-book shop, a bookstore, or on the Internet, I advise you to buy it. It's good.

Finally, any spoken sentences that are in italics are part of a flashback.

Translation: "Adauchi no Rei" – "Spirit of Vengeance"

Previously in "The Crow: Spirit Bullet": In the two years that followed Yusuke's death, Sakyo created a permanent tunnel connecting the human world to the demon world. As a result, demons rampaged through the human world and eventually conquered Japan, then began to spread through mainland Asia. Toguro formed a new team made up of four extremely dangerous demons: Akuhi, a draconic demon with the power of fire; Mizuko, a demonic sea nymph; Hikari, a light manipulator; and Kagero, a demon with power over darkness. The surviving Spirit Detectives formed a resistance force to topple Sakyo and Toguro but were so far only maintaining. Puu's spirit was reborn in a crow and he and Botan found Yusuke, bringing him back to life. After bringing him up to speed, Botan marked Yusuke with the symbol of the crow and sent him back to the human world with even stronger spirit powers and a desire for vengeance.

Yusuke landed on top of a skyscraper in the human world. "Damn. I'd look so much cooler plummeting to Earth if I had a cape."

Puu the crow cawed at him and began to fly.

"All right, I get it," Yusuke said. "I'm coming, Puu."

Yusuke leaped across the rooftops, following the crow. As he did, he observed the city below him. "So much has changed," he said to himself.

Yusuke spotted a trio of demons trashing a convenience shop. They were obviously low-class demons, judging by their inhuman appearance.

"Please stop!" the middle-aged human man who ran the shop begged.

"Really?" the leader of the trio sneered. "Why?"

The man just stuttered as his wife clung to him in terror. However, she had the courage to ask, "Why are you doing this to us?"

"Because this is our world now," the leader replied. "And you and the rest of the human race don't mean shit anymore."

Yusuke growled in rage. Without really thinking about it, he gracefully plummeted off the rooftop he was on and landed behind the demon.

"You should really leave them alone," he said.

The other two-thirds of the trio turned around with their leader to face him. "What the fuck you all painted up for, huh, ass-monkey?" the leader asked.

"Shit, man, he's got a bird panted on his face," another one of the demons commented.

"Step off, bitch!" the third demon yelled. "Or we'll fuck you up, too!"

"You? Fuck me up?" Yusuke asked disdainfully. He scoffed. "That'll be the day. You punks have barely any spirit energy."

"Yeah, well, you're still just a punk human!" the leader retorted.

"Come on, then," Yusuke challenged. "You talk a big game. Let's see you put your money where your mouth is."

"Time to die, punk-ass!" the leader yelled and charged at Yusuke like a bull. Now that Yusuke thought about it, he really did look like a bull. Putting that thought aside, he simply sidestepped the demon and stuck his foot out, tripping him.

Outraged, the leader rose to his feet again and charged at Yusuke once more. This time, Yusuke grabbed him by his horns and tossed him.

"Drago! Stego! Waste that son of a bitch!" the leader ordered.

Drago (who looked like a cross between a bird and a dragon) and Stego (who had spikes running down his back and a spiked tail) charged at Yusuke. Drago flew at Yusuke and slashed him with his wings. However, Yusuke felt no pain from Drago's slashes and his wounds only bled a little before sealing themselves.

"What the fuck?" Drago uttered, stunned at this new development.

"I'll get him!" Stego yelled and jumped into the air. He coiled and then came down on Yusuke, intending to use the spikes on his back and tail to grind him into dust. Unfortunately for him, Yusuke caught him and tossed him like a giant baseball.

"Had enough yet, or do you little pussies want more?" he asked.

"This shitty store's more trouble than it's worth!" the leader shouted. "We're out of here!" That said, he, Drago, and Stego fled.

"Thank you, young man," the shop owner said.

"Don't thank me," Yusuke replied. "I only did what should have been done a long time ago."

"It's not that nobody's tried to stand up to those bastards," the shop owner's wife said. "It's just that everybody who ever tried was never seen again . . . alive, that is."

"What about the resistance?" Yusuke asked.

"They do their best, but Sakyo and Toguro are just so powerful that there's barely any hope of defeating them," the shop owner replied.

"Who are you?" the shop owner's wife asked.

"Nobody," Yusuke replied. "Just someone who can't stay dead or away from trouble."

He walked away from the couple, leaping up onto the ladder of a fire escape and climbing up to a rooftop. He leaped from that rooftop and onto the next, the crow flying ahead of him, guiding him.

Eventually, he found his way to the apartment building where he had lived with his alcoholic mother Atsuko. He noticed that it wasn't exactly abandoned, and he was about to go inside when a police officer intercepted him.

"Excuse me, but humans are not allowed to visit or reside in this apartment complex," the officer said.

"You're human, too," Yusuke said. "Why are you helping them?"

"I don't make the rules," the officer replied with rueful undertones in his voice.

"Excuse me, but I don't have time for your bullshit," Yusuke said. He grabbed the officer and was about to toss him when a flashback interrupted. In his vision, he saw the officer and his comrades learning that from now on, their precinct and others within the city would be under demonic management. The humans who had run the precincts before had been murdered. Since then, the police had been pariahs, branded as traitors to their kind, for the police force now existed as enforcers of Toguro and Sakyo's new order.

Yusuke dropped him once the vision ended. "You've suffered, too."

"Why do you care?" the officer asked, but not in an angry tone, more like he was bewildered.

"Someone has to," Yusuke replied. "Mind if I go in now?"

"Don't," the officer pleaded. "If you go in there, you'll end up dead. And I'll be dead for letting you go in."

"Don't worry about me," Yusuke said. "I'm already dead. And so is this bullshit empire of Toguro's." Without waiting for the officer to respond, Yusuke walked into the apartment building. Memory and the crow guided him up to the apartment where he'd resided with Atsuko.

Yusuke opened the door and the crow flew in, quickly finding a perch. Once he stepped inside, he received another flashback. In it, he saw Atsuko answering the door, only to find Toguro on the other side.

"_Hello, Atsuko Urameshi,_" he had said.

"_How do you know who I am?_" Atsuko had asked.

"_I'm an acquaintance of your son,_" Toguro had replied. "_And I'm sorry to say . . . he's not coming home ever again. He can't, considering that he's dead._"

_"Oh, no!_" Atsuko had exclaimed, tears coming to her eyes. "_Not Yusuke! No!_" By then, she had burst into tears.

"_Don't worry,_" Toguro had said, walking into the apartment. "_I'll spare you the pain of carrying on in this world without him._" He had removed his trench coat, revealing his shirtless torso. Summoning his terrible demon energy, he had powered up to 20 percent of his strength.

"_What are you?_" Atsuko had asked, frightened.

"_The one who will reunite you with your son,_" Toguro had replied. With one vicious punch, he had killed her. She had fallen to the ground, her blood pooling around her.

Yusuke fell to his knees in emotional and mental agony. "He . . . murdered . . . my mother!" he managed to get out, his voice strangled, fighting back tears.

"What are you doing in my home, human?" a voice asked.

Yusuke rose to his feet and glared at the source of the voice. Said voice had come from a demon, high-class obviously, because he looked very much like a human. However, the pointed ears and the glittering, inhumanly predatory look in his eyes made it very clear that he wasn't human.

"What the fuck are you doing in my house?" Yusuke asked angrily.

"I already asked you that particular question," the demon replied.

Yusuke angrily lunged at him and slammed him into a wall. "How did you get this apartment?!"

"The new landlord let me have it after the drunken human whore who lived here before kicked the bucket," the demon replied with a sneer in his voice.

"You bastard!" Yusuke yelled. "Don't you ever call my mother that!" With a scream of rage, he hurled the demon into the other wall. Said demon got up, mad as hell.

"You'll die for that, you miserable human," the demon snarled, shooting a bolt of crimson lightning at Yusuke, who just let it hit him. The red electricity struck Yusuke in the chest and slammed him into the opposite wall. He then crumpled to the ground. "Yeah, take that, you crow-faced bitch."

The demon was very unpleasantly surprised when Yusuke got up again. "What the fuck?"

"Surprised?" Yusuke asked, cruelly smirking. "You can't hurt me. You can't hurt me because I'm already dead." He pointed his index finger at the demon in a gun-firing pose, the tip shining darkly with black energy. His voice was low and cold as he declared his signature attack. "Spirit Gun."

The black energy shot out of his finger and struck the demon in the head, splattering his brains and blood all over the wall. The body crumpled to the floor.

Later, when the police arrived, that very bloody tableau was what they found, along with something else.

"Check this out," one officer said, pointing at the wall.

"What the hell?" another officer asked upon seeing what was on the wall.

It was a crow, painted in the blood of the very demon that had recently occupied the apartment the police were examining.

When Toguro got the news, he wasn't exactly a happy camper. Actually, that was an understatement.

"Who the hell did this?" he asked.

"Shhhh, calm down, Toguro-sama," Hikari replied, rubbing his shoulders, "we'll figure out who the dirty scum is that did that."

"When you find him, I want him dealt with --- painfully," Toguro said.

"Will do, Toguro, will do," Akuhi said, smiling evilly.

Mizuko scoffed. "You just want an excuse to kill something. Some days, I think you're no better than those low-class thugs."

"Hypocrite," Akuhi spat. "You yourself enjoy luring human sailors to their deaths."

Just then, Sakyo walked in. "Assuming you heard the news, I have some things to report."

"Go on, Sakyo," Toguro said.

"My sources in the police force told me that according to how the contents of his skull were splattered all over his apartment, his head couldn't have exploded," Sakyo explained. "The obvious answer is that someone blasted his head apart and that it was a tightly concentrated blast of spirit energy."

"It's him," Kisuri said. "The thing that I saw rising from the sea _has_ risen from the sea."

"That is only one part of your prophecy," Toguro said. "Rest assured, the second part will never come to pass. Whoever this person is, I will crush him with my bare hands."

"Interestingly enough," Sakyo contributed, "the apartment where this unfortunate incident took place was the same apartment that once belonged to Atsuko and Yusuke Urameshi. The killer also left a blood painting of a crow on the wall."

"A shadow with black wings," Kisuri murmured to herself.

Toguro considered this information for a full minute. Then he smiled.

"It appears I didn't do as good a job in killing Yusuke Urameshi as I'd thought," he said.

"He has risen from the sea in which you buried him," Kisuri intoned. "He will hunt you down, Toguro. He hungers for your blood."

"Let him come," Toguro sneered. "I will still defeat him in the end, and once again, I will end his miserable life." He smiled. "Akuhi, I want you to find Yusuke. Don't kill him. I want to do that myself."

"Sure," Akuhi replied slightly resentfully, as he didn't like the idea of being deprived of a chance to kill.

In an underground cavern, Spirit World's resistance force had met to discuss the recent happenings.

"One of our informants reported seeing a boy dressed in all black with a crow painted on his face beat up a gang of demons," Bui said.

"And in the news, there was a report of a high-class demon being murdered in his own apartment," Shishiwakamaru added.

"Did it say how?" Hiei asked.

"Apparently, his head was blown apart," Shishi replied. "Forensics says that it was a tightly concentrated blast of spirit energy that did it."

"Did you check out the address?" Kurama asked.

"The apartment was the same one Yusuke and his mother lived in before they were killed," Shishi replied. "And here's something interesting you might want to know: The killer used the demon's own blood to paint a crow on the wall."

"A tightly concentrated blast of spirit energy," Jin said. "Sounds a lot like a Spirit Gun."

"There were only three people who knew how to use that technique," Hiei said. "Two of them are dead, and the third's in Spirit World prison."

"A crow, huh?" Chu remarked. "I've heard of that shite."

"You have?" Yukina asked.

Yukina had changed greatly since the Dark Tournament. Despite the torment she had suffered at the hands of Tarukane, she had still held onto her kindness and childlike naiveté. However, both were gone now, thanks to Toguro murdering Kuwabara. Her eyes were no longer warm and gentle, but cold and hard like ice. In short, her eyes and attitude were more like Hiei's now, and that saddened him greatly. His sister had been the one good and pure thing in his life, and she had been ruined by Kuwabara's death.

_She truly did love him,_ Hiei thought. _I never did like that baka, but I wish he were still alive, if only so that Yukina could be happy again._

"The way it goes, sheila, is that the crow guides the souls of the dead to the afterlife," Chu explained. "Kinda like the Spirit World ferrygirls, except it has a second function. You see, sometimes something really fucked up happens and the poor soul is so freakin' sad that it can't rest in peace. So the crow brings that soul back to the material world to set things right."

"The crow is just an urban legend in Spirit World," Touya said.

"Assuming it's not, it must be guiding this killer," Suzuka contributed.

"Y'think it's Urameshi?" Jin asked.

"It couldn't be," Kurama replied. "Yusuke has been dead for two years, Jin. I know you miss him; we all do, but we have to live in the present."

"Well, the present sucks," Jin retorted. "We're fugitives, for crying out loud! Every demon aboveground hates us and wants us dead, and we're barely making any headway against Toguro and Sakyo, not to mention that those four demons they got working for them are stronger than most of us here. And to top it all off, we're training humans who are barely old enough to drive!"

"He does have a point," Touya said. "Our trainees have made remarkable progress, true, but none of them come close to the power that Yusuke and Kuwabara possessed."

"All of Toguro's fighters are S-class," Hiei added. "Our trainees can't even come close to A-class yet."

"We'll just have to step up their training," Kurama said.

"Kurama, we've trained the buggers as hard as we can without killing 'em," Chu said. "What they need now is time to grow into their abilities."

"Time we don't have," Kurama said, his golden eyes glittering.

When Toguro and Sakyo had taken over Japan, one of Toguro's first victims had been Kurama's human mother Shiori. In his rage, Kurama had transformed into his demon form and gone out for revenge on the former human. He'd barely survived against Toguro, having required Hiei's assistance in order to escape with his life. Ever since, Kurama hadn't been able to return to his human form, and it was just as well. Shiori Minamino was dead, and now Shuichi Minamino was dead, too.

"Whoever this killer is, we may be able to get him on our side," Touya suggested.

Hiei grunted. "We don't even know what he's after. For all we know, he may be a demon out to overthrow Toguro and Sakyo in order to gain power for himself."

"He's not a demon," Kurama contradicted. "Spirit World forensics confirmed that it was _human_ spirit energy that was behind that blast. However, they also detected a strange power fueling that blast, a power rooted in darkness."

"By the way, if this killer really is Yusuke and the crow is real, then he'd have a damn good reason for returning from the dead," Rinku said.

"How's Keiko?" Bui asked.

"No change," Hiei replied. "Yusuke's death completely broke her. She hasn't moved or spoken since that day. It took a lot of strength to remove her from her seat in the Dark Tournament stadium. Now she's not even aware of her surroundings."

"It's called catatonia," Kurama said.

"It doesn't matter who the killer is," Shishi said. "The point you all seem to be missing is that his actions have probably attracted Toguro and Sakyo's attention, as well as the attention of other demon rulers in this country. There won't be any safe place for him to conceal himself."

"Then it's imperative that we find him before Toguro and Sakyo, or the authorities, do," Kurama said.

Meanwhile, Yusuke was on a rampage. His rage had yet to abate even after killing the demon who had taken over his and his mother's home. So he unleashed his fury on the demon gangs.

One such demon gang was known as the Razors. They were a vicious gang of young demon punks with dreams of someday being in positions of power in Toguro and Sakyo's regime. Like many low-class demons, they were sick and tired of being treated as lower than dirt by the high-class demons.

It was just their luck that Yusuke walked into their turf.

"Hey, there's a toll for crossing our turf," the Razors' leader said.

"I'll pay . . . in your blood," Yusuke replied.

"Let's waste this motherfucker," another Razor suggested.

A Razor took out an enchanted chain and swung it above his head threateningly.

"Oh, yeah, I'm scared," Yusuke sneered sarcastically.

"You will be," the Razor replied, throwing the chain at Yusuke. The aforementioned chain wrapped around Yusuke, binding his arms to his torso. "Ha ha, got ya."

"Oh, you got me," Yusuke answered sarcastically. He smiled evilly, and his auburn eyes glowed a hellish garnet. "Not." Yusuke let out a primal scream as an ethereal black aura surrounded him. He extended his arms outward and the chain broke, unable to hold him.

"What the fuck?" the Razor that had wielded that chain uttered, shocked.

Another Razor had gotten behind Yusuke and was now charging at him with a Kukri knife. Seeing through the crow's eyes enabled Yusuke to sidestep the charge, moving so quickly it seemed as though he was invisible. He grabbed the Razor by the arm and removed the Kukri knife from his hand, then kicked him so hard he flew a good number of meters back.

"Cool knife," Yusuke said.

A third Razor pointed a gun at Yusuke and fired energy bullets at him. One of the bullets hit Yusuke in the hand, making him cry out in apparent agony.

"Ahhhh! Ahhhh! Ahhhh!" he screamed, clutching his "injured" hand. He fell to his knees, still clutching his hand.

"Like it?" the Razor asked. "I can channel my spirit energy through this gun and turn it into bullets! Hurts, doesn't it, asswipe!"

Yusuke's screams of agony turned into sick laughter as he looked up at the Razors. He stood up, still laughing, and held up his "injured" hand to look at them through the hole, a hole that quickly sealed up.

"I didn't even feel it," he admitted, sneering. His fist glowed with black energy. "But you'll feel this. Shotgun."

A wave of black energy blasts shot out of his fist, striking all five Razors. Messengers of Yusuke's wrath, the dark energies perforated each Razor, penetrating their tough skin and tearing through the more vulnerable innards. Death was not so instantaneous, and it was definitely brutal. Then again, what else could one expect from a vengeful, undead Spirit Detective?

Yusuke walked to the body of the Razor that had originally owned the Kukri knife and took the sheath from him, attaching it to the waistband of his black pants and then placing the knife within the sheath.

"Excellent work, Yusuke Urameshi," a cold voice sneered.

Yusuke turned to face the source of the voice and saw a young man with flame-like crimson-and-gold hair and hellish red-on-ebon eyes.

"Thanks," Yusuke said sarcastically. "Now get lost."

"Not until I've tested your abilities for myself," the man replied. "You do well against low-class thugs and effete high-class demons. I want to see how you'd do against me."

"Oh, you wanna fight, huh?" Yusuke asked. "I don't have time for this shit. I've got bigger fish to fry."

"You're exactly as he said you were," the man said. "Disrespectful and impatient."

"And who's 'he'?" Yusuke asked.

"Your once and future killer," the man replied. "I believe you know him well."

"Toguro," Yusuke snarled, dark hatred in his voice. "You work for him, don't you?"

"My orders are to bring you in alive," the man replied, confirming Yusuke's suspicions.

"Newsflash, fucker," Yusuke said. "I'm not 'alive.'"

"Just as well," the man said. "You'll be back in Spirit World soon enough."

"Before I kill your ass, mind telling me who you are?" Yusuke asked. "And while you're at it, the names of your accomplices would do nicely, too."

"Akuhi," the man replied. "The others are Mizuko, Hikari, and Kagero, not that you'll live long enough for their names to matter to you." An aura of unholy flame formed around him and lines of fire zoomed out in all directions.

"Ooh, pretty," Yusuke sneered.

"But deadly," Akuhi added, and the flames zoomed in Yusuke's direction. Yusuke simply jumped out of the way of the flames faster than the naked eye could follow. When he reappeared, it was to reach through Akuhi's fire aura and punch him in the face.

"You're not so tough," Yusuke mocked. "Now Toguro's last team, those were some tough motherfuckers."

" 'Not so tough'?" Akuhi quoted angrily. "That was just the tip of the volcano. Once you see the full extent of my powers, you will fear me, Urameshi."

"Yap, yap, yap," Yusuke mocked.

"I'll teach you to mock me!" Akuhi yelled. "Fire Stream!" An orb of flame formed in his hands and he held it out as if about to throw it. Instead of being thrown, though, it exploded into a stream --- that is, if a stream was made of fire instead of water --- and said stream was running toward Yusuke.

Yusuke jumped up out of the way of the fiery stream, but it looped upward. At first, Yusuke thought it had missed him, but seeing through the crow's eyes warned him that the Fire Stream was going to hit him from behind. He turned around just in time for the flaming river to strike him.

"One roasted Spirit Detective coming up!" Akuhi shouted triumphantly. However, when his Fire Stream faded, he noticed that Yusuke had not quite been reduced to ashes.

The vengeful Spirit Detective landed before Akuhi, his skin seared and blistered from the flames and his shirt in tatters. By some miracle, his pants and painted face had survived largely unscathed.

"Is that the best you can do?" Yusuke asked as his burns healed, leaving only somewhat tanned skin.

"What is this?" Akuhi asked, stunned. "You're not dead?"

"Newsflash, fucker," Yusuke replied. "You can't kill someone who's already dead!"

"I can try!" Akuhi retorted. "Flame Tornado Kick!" Fire wrapped around his arms and he spun on his hands, rapidly kicking Yusuke in a manner similar to the movement of a tornado. Yusuke just casually blocked his kicks. "What the hell are you?"

"Vengeance," Yusuke replied. "And it's about time you tasted it." He pointed both of his index fingers at Akuhi in a gun-firing pose. "Spirit Gun Automatic."

He fired multiple Spirit Gun blasts out of both fingers, perforating the draconic fire demon.

_Holy fucking shit,_ Yusuke thought. _How am I doing this? I knew my powers got stronger after I was resurrected, but damn!_

It was then that an eerie, emotionless voice spoke in his mind.

_Now that you are neither of the living world nor of the realm of the dead, your powers are virtually unlimited. As such, you have nigh-limitless ammunition for your Spirit Gun._

_Thanks for the heads-up, Puu,_ Yusuke thought. He looked at the sprawled corpse of Akuhi and then at the permanently blackened sky. "This is just the beginning."

"Yes, the beginning of the end," Yusuke heard Akuhi say. "For you."

"What the fuck?" Yusuke asked.

Akuhi rose to his feet, every movement agony since Yusuke's last attack. "Wait until you see my true form. Then you will know what real power is, Urameshi!"

"Bring it on," Yusuke challenged.

"Consider it brought," Akuhi retorted. With that said, he began to change. His body lengthened, or rather, his torso did and on both ends while his arms and legs remained the same. Yusuke noticed that Akuhi wasn't just growing longer, he was also growing bigger. Akuhi's skin toughened and reddened as his face extended into a snout and his teeth grew and sharpened. His fingers fused together and reshaped themselves into three-"fingered" claws, as his feet tore out of his shoes, exposing three-"toed" claws.

By this point, Akuhi's clothes could no longer fit him and they tore apart. The transformation was complete. Akuhi was in his true form: a crimson dragon.

"Now what do you think?" he asked in a snarling voice.

"I think you're just a bigger target," Yusuke replied.

Akuhi's response was to breathe a stream of fire at him. Yusuke just dodged the blast and retaliated with a Spirit Gun. The black energy shot did hurt Akuhi, but it mostly made him angry.

The crimson dragon roared angrily and took to the sky, relying on whatever power it was that made Asian dragons capable of flying without wings. Then he swooped down and grabbed Yusuke with one of its claws.

"Let me go, or when I break free, I'll rip you apart," Yusuke ordered threateningly.

"I don't think so, Urameshi," Akuhi replied. "See, my orders were to bring you to Toguro so that he could kill you himself. But you know what? Fuck Toguro. You've pissed me off, so I'm gonna waste you myself."

"Waste this, bitch!" Yusuke yelled. Calling forth all the dark power he possessed, he wrenched himself loose from Akuhi's grip. "When you arrive in hell, remember who put you there." He pointed his fist at Akuhi as he fell, aiming for his heart. "Shotgun."

This time, the Shotgun came out as a tightly concentrated wave of energy bursts, all aimed at the same target: Akuhi's chest. Not even Akuhi's tough dragon hide could protect him from that power. The bursts tore through his sternum and came out through his back.

Akuhi roared in pain and plummeted to the ground, reverting to a naked human form as he did. Once he landed, his blood pooled out around him.

Yusuke landed next to him and took out the Kukri knife, then began to bring it down on the dying Akuhi . . .

By the time Kurama, Hiei, and Touya arrived, Yusuke was already gone.

"He's begun, hasn't he?" Touya concluded.

"Yes, and if this is any indication, then the others in Toguro's employ will be in for far worse," Kurama said.

"Serves them right," Hiei stated coldly. "Toguro ruined my sister, made her just like me --- a cold, unfeeling demon."

"We should be leaving," Kurama advised. "The scent of all this blood has already alerted several demons within the area and they will have most likely notified the police."

"Let's go," Touya said.

Yusuke watched the tableau from a rooftop directly above them. A smile came to his blackened lips.

"All I have to do is work my way up the food chain," he said to himself. "And then you're mine, Toguro."

To be continued . . .

Next: Botan again, and you're in for some real excitement now. With Puu's guidance, Yusuke is cutting a swath of vengeance through demon-controlled Sarayashiki. Of course, Toguro's not going to be that happy that one of his lieutenants is dead, and he'll be even less happy when another one turns up dead. The resistance finally catches up to Yusuke and you won't believe the reunion that comes afterward. Then again, maybe you will. All this and more next time in "The Crow: Spirit Bullet."__


	4. Chapter 3: Mona Lisa Overdrive

"The Crow: Spirit Bullet"

Chapter 3: "Mona Lisa Overdrive"

Disclaimer: Yu Yu Hakusho and The Crow do not belong to me. The former is the property of Yoshihiro Togashi, Shonen Jump, and Cartoon Network. The latter is the property of James O'Barr.

Author's note: Like all the brutal violence Yusuke's dishing out to various demons? Good. Expect more of it, and a few startling new twists.

Dedication: To The Wolf God, because September 22, 2004 --- today --- is his birthday.

Previously in "The Crow: Spirit Bullet": Yusuke returned to the human world, hell-bent on avenging himself, Kuwabara, and Genkai as well as the ruined lives left in the wake of Toguro's conquest. Using his enhanced spirit power, Yusuke made short work of various demon gangs and brutally murdered a demon that had moved into his and his mother's apartment after their deaths. His actions drew the attention of the resistance force and Toguro, who sent Akuhi to bring Yusuke to him. However, even Akuhi couldn't stand up to Yusuke and was viciously slain.

"That was definitely Yusuke," Hiei said.

"Yes," Kurama conceded. "That was doubtlessly his aura I sensed. It's different, colored by wrath and hatred and vengeance."

"I knew it!" Jin cheered. "I knew it was Urameshi! That bloke just can't stay down no matter how hard you try!"

"It seems that this 'crow' you spoke of is real, Chu," Bui said.

"Yeah," Chu said. "Ripper."

"An urban legend at work," Touya mused. "Interesting."

"You can't call it an urban legend if it actually exists, mate," Jin said, clapping a hand on Touya's shoulder.

"Don't touch me," the ice ninja grumbled, annoyed. "You shouldn't celebrate."

"Why not?" Jin asked. "Urameshi's back!"

"Not really," Kurama replied. "A soul brought back to this world by the crow can usually stay only long enough to slake its thirst for vengeance."

"In other words, don't count on Yusuke remaining in this world for very long," Hiei clarified.

"He can still join us, can't he?" Jin asked.

"Yusuke has his own motives," Shishi replied. "He may choose to pursue his own quest for vengeance instead of helping us take down Toguro and Sakyo."

"That's where you're wrong, Shishi," Suzuka contested. "Yusuke's motives may be more personal than ours, but we've all lost something or someone to that muscle-bound fiend. Our goals run along parallel courses. He will find that there is mutual benefit in our joining forces."

"_If_ we can even catch up to him," Rinku added.

"The kid's got a point," Chu said. "That's one elusive bloke we're dealing with here."

"Let's hope that Toguro's luck is just as bad when it comes to finding Urameshi," Jin said.

Speaking of Toguro, he was in an even worse mood than he had been at the start. Of course, how else could he be expected to react to the news of Akuhi's death?

"The police found Akuhi with a giant, bloody hole in his chest and a bird carved around that hole," Hikari informed him.

"Yusuke," Toguro growled.

"That human scum," Kagero snarled.

"Akuhi's death was but a warning," Kisuri said, her voice eerily calm. "He is coming for you, Toguro. Your name echoes in his mind. He is focused solely on your death."

Toguro looked to his lieutenants. "I want you to find him, and when you do find him, I want him brought to me."

"It will be done, Toguro," Kagero said. That said, he and the two female lieutenants exited the corporate headquarters of Toguro-Sakyo, Inc.

Yusuke had returned to the apartment where he and his mother once lived. The body of the demon that had recently inhabited it had been taken to the morgue by the police, and Yusuke had cleaned up everything as much as he could. He'd also replaced his tattered shirt with a tight black muscle shirt.

"My life is such a fucking mess," he said to himself as he lay on his bed. He found himself chuckling bitterly. _What life? I'm a frickin' zombie._

The crow perched on the windowsill, silently watching Yusuke. Finally, it spoke.

_Your mission is not complete yet. Do you think you have time to sit around and wait for Toguro's lieutenants to come to you?_

"Ah, I suppose you got a point there," Yusuke conceded. He sighed. "All those visions I kept getting hurt like a bitch."

_Your memories, Yusuke,_ the crow said. _Your memories are returning to you, to guide you on your path._

"It's hard to believe that you were once a cute little blue ball of fluff," Yusuke said. He got off the bed. "But there'll be time for reminiscing later. Toguro knows I'm comin' for his sorry ass. I just have to drive the point home."

He slid the window open and then climbed up onto the windowsill. He leaned forward and plummeted, allowing gravity to overtake him for a few brief moments before he grabbed a phone cable and swung on it like an acrobat. He swung upward and released the cable, launching himself feet-first onto another rooftop.

Yusuke raced across the rooftop, his speed and momentum enabling him to easily leap to the next rooftop.

_I know the rest of you are looking for me,_ he thought as he leaped from rooftop to rooftop. _Come and find me. You'll only find your own death._

The crow flew ahead of him, guiding him on his path. He felt a demonic aura, one that flowed like water and yet was hard like ice.

_Must be Mizuko,_ he thought. He ran in the direction he sensed the demonic Nereid's energy.

True to her aquatic nature, he found her on the beach, one surrounded by sharp, jagged rocks. She looked like a teenage girl with blue hair and violet eyes. She wore something that looked like a front-clasp black bra, if the bra was tied instead of held together with the clasp, and a black miniskirt that tied at the side like a sash. It didn't escape Yusuke's notice that the miniskirt's hem slanted, covering her right leg almost to the knee while exposing a lot of thigh for her left leg.

"Mizuko, right?" Yusuke asked.

"Yes," Mizuko confirmed, "and you're the undead punk who murdered Akuhi and that other demon."

"Yeah, that'd be me," Yusuke retorted insolently.

"Toguro granted you a burial at sea," Mizuko said. "You came out of that sea to kill him. Allow me to return you to the sea." Waves crashed onto the shore, and instead of receding, they wrapped around Mizuko's feet. "Tsunami Rush!"

Mizuko launched herself at Yusuke with the power of the tidal waves pushing her forward. She tackled the undead Spirit Detective, pinning him to the sandy ground.

"As much as I like having a hot girl on top of me, you're not my type," Yusuke quipped. He pushed her off him with his legs and then pinned her. "Now this is much better."

"Lecherous human," Mizuko sneered. She grabbed his head and channeled water through her hands, creating a sphere to cut off his oxygen.

The sphere began to bubble. "What the hell?" Mizuko wondered. Then to Yusuke, "Are you trying to speak?" The water sphere broke with a splash, freeing Yusuke's head. "Go on. Say your last words, human."

"I wasn't speaking," Yusuke replied, his hair gel washed out and his bangs now hanging in his eyes. He swept his bangs away, revealing the symbol of the crow painted on his face. "I was laughing."

"What reason would you have to laugh?" Mizuko asked.

"I'm dead, you stupid bitch," Yusuke replied. "I don't need to breathe anymore."

"Whether you breathe or not doesn't matter to me," Mizuko snarled. "You're going to die, anyway." She raised her arms and a tidal wave crashed down on them. Yusuke instinctively raised his arms to protect himself, until he realized that the wave hadn't caught him. He lowered his arms and looked up.

What he saw surprised him. Specifically, the tidal wave was still there, only it was now a churning sphere of water that surrounded him and Mizuko.

"Ok, so you turned the beach into an aquarium," he scoffed. "Big deal."

"Yes, very big deal, indeed," Mizuko said. "You see, you foolish boy, in this zone of water, I am much stronger."

"Yeah? Prove it," Yusuke challenged.

In a motion so fast that Yusuke almost didn't see or sense it happening, Mizuko lunged at him and punched him in the stomach. It didn't hurt Yusuke, but the force of it knocked him off his feet and into the water. He struggled as the churning sphere violently rotated him through its depths.

"Did you really think you could beat me, human?" Mizuko asked.

_Stupid water,_ Yusuke thought. _If I could just find a way to stay still long enough to get a lock on that water witch._

"When, oh, when should I finish you off?" Mizuko wondered. She considered that for a few moments before smiling. She had reached her conclusion. "Don't worry, Yusuke. You won't die lonely. I'll be right there with you when it happens."

That said, she dove into the tsunami sphere and swam around Yusuke, striking him so fast she was nothing more than a blur.

_C'mon, Yusuke, Genkai trained you a lot better than this!_ Yusuke thought. He drifted there, letting Mizuko hit him as he focused on his dark spirit energy. His eyes closed and then reopened with a hellish vermillion glow in them.

Just as Mizuko was about to strike again, Yusuke grabbed her by her wrist and tossed her out of the tsunami sphere and back onto dry land. Yusuke jumped out as well, his finger pointed at her in a gun-firing pose.

"Don't worry, Mizuko," he said. "Your master will be joining you soon enough. And by the way, I made up something special, just for you." With a cold smirk, he whispered the name of his attack. "Shocking Spirit Gun."

Electrically charged ebony energy burst forth from Yusuke's finger, aimed at a single target: Mizuko.

Mizuko created a wall of water to protect herself, but the Shocking Spirit Gun broke her wall back down into hydrogen and oxygen and pierced her stomach. The electrified black energy raced through her body, feeling like she was being burned alive from the inside out. She screamed in pain as the dark lightning heated the water in her body.

Finally, she collapsed, her body a smoking heap, beginning to disperse into hydrogen and oxygen like her protective wall.

"Alas, poor Mizuko, I knew her well," Yusuke intoned mockingly. "Well, not really." Chuckling sinisterly to himself, he walked away from the beach and behind him, the water vapor that was once Mizuko had condensed into the symbol of the crow.

Later on, Toguro's remaining lieutenants convened at the site of Mizuko's demise.

"Shit, shit, shit," Kagero repeated.

"There's no point in repeating a single curse," Hikari said.

"That miserable corpse of a human is working my last nerve," Kagero snarled. "First Akuhi, now Mizuko. Those gangs of thugs I could care less about, though."

"Don't worry, Kagero, we'll get that filthy human," Hikari assured her dark companion.

"Yes, we will," Kagero vowed before walking toward a shadow. Hikari followed him, knowing full well what he was going to do. Once Kagero had reached the shadow, he took Hikari's hand and stepped in, shadow-sliding with her back to Toguro and Sakyo's corporate headquarters.

"What did you find?" Toguro asked.

"Mizuko --- what was left of her, that is," Hikari replied. "Interesting how her remains formed into the shape of a crow."

"That miserable human's lived long enough," Kagero snarled. "I say we find him and kill him now!"

"Except we don't know where to find him," Sakyo replied. "He no longer officially exists, so he cannot be traced through computer records. As for tracking his aura, it is not very easy to find. His aura has been fused with the power of the crow and thus it is particularly elusive."

"We'll find a way to ferret him out," Toguro said. "He'll show himself sooner or later, and when he does, we'll be there to capture him." He smirked. "Excuse me. _You'll_ be there to capture him. _I_ will be there to deliver the blow that will return him to his resting place."

The resistance fighters had gathered once again to discuss the subject of the ever-elusive Yusuke Urameshi.

"How the hell are we supposed to find him?" Rinku asked.

"We think like actual detectives," Kurama replied coolly. "Hiei and I knew Yusuke fairly well. Well enough to know that if he were to pick a hiding place, he'd pick a place in which he felt safe."

"His home," Hiei said. "He would go to his home."

"What makes you say that?" Shishi asked.

"It's the perfect hiding place for an angry, undead human teenager out for vengeance," Hiei replied. "The police have already been there, so they wouldn't come back for any reason. And no one would expect him to hide out in the very place where he killed someone."

"So what are we waiting for?" Chu asked. "Let's get the bloke here already!"

"Already done," Kurama replied. "Jin and Touya are already on their way to Atsuko Urameshi's home."

Yusuke was prowling the night, his rage still not quite sated. To the contrary: Killing Mizuko had only whetted his appetite for blood.

_Shit,_ Yusuke thought. _When the fuck did I become so bloodthirsty? Yeah, I enjoyed a good fight when I was alive, but I never looked forward to killing before._

However, the more Yusuke thought about it, the more he didn't really mind. They were scum, anyway. They had viciously taken over the human world and spent the last two years crushing any and all opposition to their reign. In almost every manner imaginable they had mistreated and taken advantage of humanity.

They would pay. Each and every one of them would pay. He would take down Toguro and Sakyo, and after that he would ensure that their empire went down in flames.

With that thought firmly in place, Yusuke observed a demonic drug dealer. One of the myriad ways that the demons took advantage of humans was through the sale of demonic versions of Ecstasy, cocaine, and speed. They were stronger than the versions created by humans but also far more toxic to a human's system. The humans didn't care about the risk; most regular users were too addicted to care.

Just the thought of it made Yusuke sick with rage. At the moment, the dealer was selling to yet another hopeless addict.

_Enough of that shit,_ the undead Spirit Detective thought. As silent as an owl flying through the night, he jumped off the rooftop and landed before the dealer and his customer.

"Hello, gentlemen," he said, his greeting tinged with mocking friendliness. "How goes it?"

"You're that crow freak, aren't you?" the dealer spat.

"I see you've heard of me," Yusuke said, unperturbed. "Good. Then you know what's about to happen to your sorry ass."

"I ain't scared of you, you fucking freak!" the dealer yelled. However, it was fairly obvious that his bold display was just empty bravado.

"Really?" Yusuke wondered. "Then I suppose you're shaking from anticipation of killing me."

The dealer drew a gun. "See this, motherfucker? This is a Makai Gun, and I can put my aura in it and shoot it out as bullets!"

"I've seen that already," Yusuke said. "It didn't work on me. But if you insist, I won't move an inch from this spot. Go on. Shoot me."

"You're one fucked-up punk," the dealer remarked, smirking. "It's your funeral, tough guy." He pointed the Makai Gun at Yusuke and fired at him six times: three in the chest, two in the stomach, and one in the head. Yusuke never budged from his spot, not even a millimeter. He just smiled cruelly as his wounds sealed themselves.

"That didn't hurt at all," Yusuke said.

"What the fuck are you?" the dealer asked.

Yusuke pointed his finger at the dealer and black energy gathered at the tip. "You'll get your answer at the end of this bullet. Spirit Gun."

The Spirit Gun burst out from Yusuke's finger in a deadly line that extended to the dealer's heart, through that heart, and beyond. There was nothing the demonic peddler could do except very quickly and very messily die.

Yusuke turned his attention to the dealer's customer. He looked to be no older than 17, which was the age Yusuke would have been had he not died two years ago.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" he asked.

"Escaping," the kid replied. "My life is a fucking mess. Ever since the demons took over, my parents have been out of a job. I'm not ever going to be able to go to a good college because they say that 'humans have no need for higher education.' So this is my escape."

"I know what it's like, to want to escape," Yusuke confided. "But there are better ways than this."

"Like what?" the kid asked. He started to spasm. "Shit! Shit! Fuckin' withdrawal!"

Yusuke grabbed the kid by the wrist and drew his Kukri knife. He then made a shallow cut in the kid's arm.

"What are you doing?" the kid asked.

"Saving your life," Yusuke replied. He concentrated, focusing his aura into the kid's bloodstream. The black energy coursed through the young man's blood, forcing the drugs out through the cut Yusuke had made.

"Holy shit," the teen breathed out. "What did you do, man?"

"Instant detox," Yusuke replied. "Now go back to your parents. I'm sure they're worried about you."

"S-sure," the kid agreed and turned around to go back home.

_Do you think we have time for humanitarian deeds?_ the crow asked silently. _Two others remain before you face Toguro, and you only have so much time on this earthly plane._

"Who gives a shit?" Yusuke asked. "My whole fucking life was borrowed time, anyway. This is no different."

Yusuke then sensed two auras making their way toward him. He recognized those auras fairly well. One was as cold as ice and the other was like the wind.

"Touya and Jin," he muttered. "I don't have time for this." He leaped onto a rooftop and ran at an incomprehensible speed, figuring that he'd outrun the two ninja. However, they had gotten faster themselves in the two years since Yusuke's death and they were able to keep up.

After running halfway around the city, Yusuke relented and whirled to face his pursuers, his index finger glowing black.

"All right, you two!" he shouted. "I know you're following me so come and get me!"

"Aw, c'mon, mate!" Jin replied cheerfully as he landed on the rooftop. "Don't act like that! We're all friends here!"

"Yeah. Right," Touya said sarcastically.

"What the hell do you want with me?" Yusuke asked.

"Your help," Touya replied.

"Sorry," Yusuke said. "I'm done working for Spirit World. I have a mission of my own now, and that's to make Toguro pay."

"What do you think we've been trying to do?" Jin asked.

"For you, it's a run-of-the-mill 'save the world' job," Yusuke replied. "For me, it's a hell of a lot more personal."

"Of all the nerve," Touya stated with calm rage. "You're not the only one who's suffered losses in Toguro's new empire. The end of the Dark Tournament ruined and ended a lot of lives, you selfish brat. You may think you're invincible because you have the power of the crow, but that will not prevent me from dragging your sorry carcass back to our headquarters if I have to."

"You're welcome to try, motherfucker," Yusuke snarled, pointing his glowing finger at the ice ninja. "You're welcome to try."

Touya just answered Yusuke's silent threat with a ball of icy energy pointed at the undead Spirit Detective.

"Hold on a minute!" Jin shouted, getting in between Yusuke and Touya. "Settle down. Touya, you have to calm down. Yusuke, you have to realize that there is so much more at stake than just your personal mission of vengeance. Speaking of that, I think on some level you do realize it. Why else would you have saved that kid?"

"I felt sorry for him, that's all," Yusuke replied, trying to affect his usual tough-guy, I-don't-give-a-fuck routine.

"Just come back with us, ok?" Jin beseeched Yusuke.

"Fine, I'll come back with ya," Yusuke conceded. "As long as I can leave any damn time I please."

"Sure," Jin conceded.

And with that, Jin and Touya led Yusuke back to their base.

"Your secret entrance is in an abandoned subway station?" Yusuke wondered.

"No, underneath," Touya replied in a tone that led Yusuke to think that Touya was silently calling him an idiot. "There are some hidden catacombs underneath the subway station. Follow us."

So Yusuke followed them through the catacombs and into the resistance's secret base, the crow flapping its wings behind them.

"Whoa!" one of the trainees, a teenage boy with tall gray hair, exclaimed. "Is that Yusuke Urameshi?"

"A kid with a crow painted on his face and a crow on his shoulder," another teenage boy, this one blond, remarked. "How very inspiring."

"Shut up, Kido," a teenage girl grumbled. "If you could feel what I feel coming from that boy, you wouldn't be making all those sarcastic remarks."

"And what do you feel, Miaka?" Kido asked.

"I feel great pain and sorrow," Miaka replied. "That sorrow is the root of his anger and murderous hatred toward Toguro."

"Are you reading my mind?" Yusuke asked.

"No, I'm reading your feelings," Miaka replied. "There's a difference."

"These are three of our trainees," a familiar yet different voice explained to Yusuke. "Yana, Kido, and Miaka."

"Yukina?" Yusuke asked, turning to the kimono-clad ice maiden. However, she was far different from what he remembered. In physical appearance, she looked exactly the same. But she wasn't. Her eyes were harder than and as cold as ice. Her soul felt hard and cold, too, but he felt an underlying sorrow.

"Hai, Yusuke, it's me," Yukina replied, a wintry smile on her face.

That smile scared Yusuke out of his wits. _So this is what Touya meant by others' lives having been ruined besides my own. Kuwabara dying must have really fucked up Yukina._

"You'd be right, Yusuke," Hiei said, stepping out of the shadows.

"Hey, Hiei, good to see you again," Yusuke said.

"Likewise," Hiei said and despite his usual indifferent tone Yusuke could tell he really meant it.

"Now where's Kurama?" Yusuke asked.

"Here," the fox demon replied, his voice colder than Yusuke remembered. "Yusuke. It's good that you're here."

"Kurama?" Yusuke asked, looking his erstwhile ally up and down. "Why are you in demon form?"

"I have no reason to hold onto Shuichi Minamino anymore," Kurama replied, his voice filled with sorrow and cold rage.

"He killed your mother too, didn't he?" Yusuke deduced.

"Yes," Kurama confirmed. "What Touya told you was true. You are not the only one who has suffered in Toguro's regime. Every human in this nation and a good portion of mainland Asia has suffered since Toguro and Sakyo came to power. And many more in the nations of Europe and North America will suffer as well if they are not stopped."

"North America?" Yusuke asked.

"Yeah," Chu replied. "Hey there, bloke."

"Hey, Chu," Yusuke said.

"He's particularly after the United States, mainly for its sheer production ability," Chu explained. "If he can get his hands on that country, then nobody else is gonna be able to stand up to him."

"So what's with the kids?" Yusuke asked.

"They're our trainees," Shishi replied. "After Toguro and Sakyo took over, one of their continuing projects became eradicating every human with spirit potential. We saved as many of them as we could and now we're training them to fight Toguro's lieutenants."

"Many of our trainees have the psychic power of Territory," Suzuka added. "What that means is that they can create a zone that follows whatever rules they set. For example, if Kido activates his Territory, then any person whose shadow he steps on becomes paralyzed. Yana can copy the form, memories, and personality of anyone in his Territory. Miaka's powers are not Territory-based, but she has the gift of empathy, feeling the emotions of others."

"A bunch of psychic teenagers, huh?" Yusuke remarked. "A real army you've got there."

"Not really," Rinku contradicted. "They're just a bunch of punk kids."

"Watch it, kid!" Kido spat. "We're older than you."

"Please," a bespectacled boy with an afro said. "I abhor violence."

"That's Kaitou," Kurama explained. "I went to school with him when part of me was still Shuichi. His intellect is on par with my own."

"What's his power?" Yusuke asked.

"Violence isn't allowed in my Territory," Kaitou replied. "And I can forbid anyone inside my Territory from speaking certain words."

"How the hell you survived this long being a pacifist I don't know," Yusuke commented.

"Unlike most of you bloodthirsty lot, I don't like inflicting pain on others," Kaitou answered.

"How the hell do you know what 'pacifist' means?" Hiei asked.

"I never did well in school, but I don't consider myself an idiot," Yusuke replied. "Now where's Keiko? And Shizuru?"

"Shizuru was kidnapped by Sakyo while we were escaping from Hanging Neck Island," Kurama replied. "We don't know if she's still alive or not. As for Keiko . . . come see for yourself."

Kurama took Yusuke to a room which entrance was blocked by a curtain. The silver-haired fox demon moved the curtain out of the way and gestured to Yusuke to enter.

Yusuke walked in and saw Keiko lying on a cot, slightly older than he remembered but still recognizable. Seeing her made him happy and sad at the same time. He was happy because he was seeing her again, and sad because of the vacant look in her eyes.

"She's catatonic, Yusuke," Kurama explained. "It happened almost immediately after you died. It took all of my strength and Hiei's simply to move her from her seat in the stadium. She hasn't spoken a word to anyone since, or done anything to let us know that she's aware of her surroundings."

"I want to be alone with her," Yusuke said, his voice suddenly full of emotion. He didn't bother to tell Kurama that Botan had already told him what had happened to Keiko.

"Sure," Kurama said, exiting the room.

The crow found a nearby perch in the room as Yusuke kneeled down beside Keiko's cot, holding her hand.

"Shit," he said. "It's been two years since I saw you, and you've only gotten more beautiful. Man, if you were awake, you wouldn't believe that sappy shit I just said. It's true, though; you really have gotten more beautiful. I . . . I . . . fuck, why can't I say it?! Wasn't being killed once enough to teach me my lesson on waiting too long?! Shit!"

Yusuke gathered every bit of courage he had and poured it into the four words he said next.

"I love you, Keiko."

He let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding, not that it was a breath he really needed.

"Damn, that wasn't so hard. Anyway, now that that's off my chest, I can get to the good part. You've filled out, Keiko." A lecherous smirk graced his crow-emblazoned features. "Yeah, you've definitely got some sexy curves on you."

"Yusuke, you pervert!" Keiko yelled, suddenly coming to life and slapping Yusuke.

"Ow!" Yusuke yelled. "Keiko!"

"Who are you?" Keiko asked, not recognizing Yusuke underneath the eerie cosmetic mask he wore.

"Keiko, it's me, Yusuke," Yusuke replied.

"Yusuke's dead!" Keiko protested.

"Yes and no," Yusuke contradicted. "Yes, I'm dead but I'm back from my watery grave now." He gently held Keiko's head in his hands. "Keiko, look at me. Look me in the eyes and tell me I'm not Yusuke."

Keiko looked into Yusuke's eyes, chocolate brown meeting auburn. In his eyes she saw the boy she had always loved.

Yusuke Urameshi.

"Yusuke!" Keiko shouted with tearful joy, hugging Yusuke tightly.

To be continued . . .

Next: Botan again, and things seem to be up so far. Yusuke and Keiko are together again and Yusuke has generously agreed to help the resistance take down Toguro and Sakyo. However, there are two lieutenants left and they won't be easy to beat. Yusuke kills one, but the other one escapes and does something you won't believe! Then again, maybe you will. All this and more next time in "The Crow: Spirit Bullet."


	5. Chapter 4: Hell Alive

"The Crow: Spirit Bullet"

Chapter 4: "Hell Alive"

Disclaimer: Yu Yu Hakusho and The Crow don't belong to me. YYH belongs to Yoshihiro Togashi and The Crow belongs to James O'Barr.

Author's note: Yusuke and Keiko are reunited, but how long is that going to last? Toguro and Sakyo still want his head on a silver platter and they'll do anything to get it. Also, there will be a startling twist in this chapter that you may or may not have been able to predict. On with the story.

Previously in "The Crow: Spirit Bullet": Yusuke continued his rampage of vengeance and Mizuko was his next victim. Still unsatisfied, he went after a demon who sold drugs from the demon world to unsuspecting humans. After using his powers to purge the demon's human customer of the drugs in his system, Yusuke was confronted by Jin and Touya, who convinced him to come to the resistance's headquarters with them. Once there, Yusuke met some teenage human psychics that were being trained by the resistance. He also reunited with Keiko, who awoke from her catatonia after hearing his voice.

"Yusuke?" Keiko wondered. "You're cold."

"I'm dead," Yusuke replied softly. "Of course I'm cold."

Keiko just leaned in closer to him as he held her. "It doesn't matter to me. I love you, Yusuke."

"Say that again," Yusuke murmured.

"I love you, Yusuke," Keiko repeated.

"I love you too, Keiko," Yusuke replied, his blackened lips curving upward in a gentle smile.

"How did you come back?" Keiko asked.

"See that crow?" Yusuke asked, pointing to the crow. "That used to be Puu. Fitting, isn't it? He was my guide through life when I was alive and now he's my guide through vengeance."

"Vengeance?" Keiko echoed.

"Yeah, Keiko," Yusuke replied, his tone growing serious. "Vengeance. Not just for me, but for Genkai, Kuwabara, my mother, and everyone else Toguro murdered or ruined in his rise to power."

"Where am I?" Keiko asked.

"Is it safe to come in now, Yusuke?" Kurama asked outside the curtain that separated Keiko's small room from the rest of the resistance's headquarters.

"Yeah," Yusuke replied. "We aren't getting all smoochy and touchy-feely and shit, so come on in."

Kurama entered the room. "Hello, Keiko."

"Kurama?" Keiko wondered. "Why are you in your demon form?"

"I no longer have a reason to hold on to my human identity," Kurama replied, his curt tone belying the pain in his eyes when he spoke. His tone softening, he continued. "Keiko, you're in a room we set aside just for you, to keep you safe while you were catatonic."

"Catatonic?" Keiko echoed. "How long have I been catatonic?"

"For two years," Kurama replied. "Much has changed and for the worse. In summary, Sakyo succeeded in his plans to open a permanent tunnel to the demon world. The demons that escaped were too strong for us or the human military to handle and they overran Japan under the leadership of Sakyo and Toguro. They're currently spreading through mainland Asia and we've discovered that they have designs on the United States of America."

"Who's 'we'?" Keiko asked.

"The Spirit World resistance," Kurama replied. "I will take you to meet the key members."

Keiko rose out of Yusuke's arms and off the cot, only to wobble once she stood. Yusuke placed his hands on her shoulders to steady her.

"It's ok, I got you," he said.

"Thanks, Yusuke," Keiko replied. "You're really acting like a gentleman."

"Hey, sometimes it takes dying twice to make you see that a brief thrill from some perverted act isn't worth the trouble you get from it," Yusuke replied.

"Not that it'll stop you from doing one if the opportunity strikes," Keiko contested.

"Keiko, that hurts," Yusuke said, clutching his heart in a melodramatic demonstration of faked offense.

Kurama just smiled. It had been a long time since he'd smiled and he found that he liked it. However, he had to show Keiko around, so he coughed to get the couple's attention.

"If that's over with . . ." he started to say.

"Yeah, we're done fucking around," Yusuke replied. Then he whispered in Keiko's ear, "But I wouldn't mind doing some of that with you later tonight."

Instead of slapping him as she usually would have done, Keiko simply blushed. The tone Yusuke had used to say that to her wasn't his usual perverted tone. It was something darker, more dangerous and more sensual, and it sent pleasurable chills down her spine.

Alas, they had more important things to do, so Yusuke and Keiko followed Kurama to the main hall of the resistance's headquarters.

"So she's finally awake," Hiei stated.

"You already recognize the demons here as survivors of the Dark Tournament, but you haven't been formally introduced," Kurama said. "Chu and Rinku, from Team Rokuyukai. Jin and Touya from Team Masho, a.k.a. Shinobi of the Spirit World. Shishi and Suzuka ---"

"That's _Beautiful_ Suzuka to you," Suzuka interrupted.

"--- from Team Urautogi," Kurama continued, undaunted, "and Bui from Toguro's old team."

"From Toguro's old team?" Keiko wondered.

"Yes," Kurama confirmed, "but Toguro gained his old team by forcing its members to join him after he defeated them. Bui was only too eager to join us, and he has a genuine sense of honor."

"Thanks for the praise," Bui remarked.

"Good to see you again, mate," Chu said, slapping Yusuke on the back. "Good job you've been doing up there, ripping up all those bastard demons."

"Thanks," Yusuke said. Then he noticed a boy with dirty blond hair lurking about. "Who's the kid?"

"That's Kiyoshi Mitarai," Bui replied, "another one of our trainees. He's a psychic with power over water. Specifically, he can create demons out of water with a drop of his blood. His Territory is a dimension of water."

"Sounds interesting," Yusuke remarked.

"You understand the situation we are facing, don't you?" Touya asked. "We're fighting as hard as we can, but it's a losing battle. The new lieutenants Toguro has recruited are much stronger than his former team."

"But wasn't Yusuke able to kill two of them?" Jin wondered.

"Yes, and he is the one who can turn things around for us," Hiei replied. "Yusuke, we are all strong fighters, but you are invincible. The demons Toguro recruited couldn't even touch you with the powers you hold now."

"So you expect me to sign on with you guys?" Yusuke asked in his usual defiant tone.

"Your assistance would be most appreciated," Kurama replied.

"Fine, as long as you get this through your heads," Yusuke conceded. "I'm through working for Spirit World. The only reason I'm joining is revenge on Toguro for murdering me, my mother, my friend, and the one person who bothered teaching me anything useful. For now, our goals seem to be similar, so I'm sticking with you guys."

"All right, then," Kurama said. "On another note, our spies in Toguro and Sakyo's empire have relayed to us their latest plot. They've built boats to take their strongest soldiers to America with Hikari and Kagero as their generals. The boats are actually highly advanced seafaring assault vehicles. The Americans have been working hard to create weapons to counter the demons, but their technology won't be sufficient for the task at hand."

"And you want me to stop them," Yusuke replied. "Good. I've been looking forward to tangling with those two since I killed Akuhi's punk ass."

"Come back to me, Yusuke," Keiko said.

"Don't worry about me, Keiko," Yusuke replied. "I'm invincible." With that said, he went off, the crow flying ahead of him.

Meanwhile, Hikari and Kagero were at the docks loading the demon soldiers into the assault boats. However, they were interrupted by the crow landing on one of the boats. It flew off just as a black energy bullet punctured that boat's engines, causing it to explode. The force of the explosion knocked several other boats back and some upside down.

"Who did that?" Hikari asked.

"Who do you think?" Kagero asked. "It was that undead asshole human Urameshi."

"Nice to see you know who I am, motherfucker," Yusuke sneered from atop a warehouse that stood on the docks. He jumped off the warehouse roof and landed nimbly on his feet. "Ready to die?"

"Are you?" Kagero retorted.

Yusuke looked at Hikari and couldn't stop himself from gasping. She looked so much like Genkai's younger self but much taller and curvier.

"You must be Hikari and Kagero," Yusuke said after regaining his composure.

Hikari created a whip out of light energy and lashed at Yusuke with it, but the undead Spirit Detective dodged with unnatural agility. Kagero fired a blast of shadow energy at Yusuke but that attack was evaded as well.

"Come on!" Yusuke snarled. "Try harder."

Hikari suddenly vanished from sight.

"What the fuck?" Yusuke wondered. "Running away, bitch?!"

He was answered by an evil feminine laugh. "No, you foolish boy, I'm still here. You just can't see me anymore."

"You're invisible," Yusuke deduced.

"You win the booby prize," Hikari said. "I can manipulate light in order to do almost anything. That includes bending light so that it passes through me, making me invisible to the naked eye."

With that said the invisible Hikari punched Yusuke in the face and then followed up with a vicious kick. Kagero extended his arm, silently commanding the shadows to grab Yusuke. The former Spirit Detective was bound and helpless in chains of darkness.

"Fucking hell," Yusuke cursed as he struggled in the black chains.

"Struggle all you like, Yusuke Urameshi," Kagero sneered. "It won't do anything."

"Like it matters," Yusuke sneered. "You can't do anything to hurt me."

"Maybe not," Kagero conceded. "But our goal is to bring you to Toguro, and we don't have to hurt you to accomplish that."

Hikari rematerialized and smacked Yusuke across the face. "Filthy undead human."

When her hand touched his skin, Yusuke got a sudden flash of memory. It wasn't much, as all he could see was satin and bodies entwined in the age-old dance that was sex.

_Where the hell did that memory come from?_ he wondered. He didn't have long to ponder that particular question, as Hikari shot him through the chest with a laser beam.

"Will you people quit putting holes in my clothes?" Yusuke asked irritably.

Just then, the crow swooped down and began pecking angrily at Hikari. With a burst of light similar to a solar flare, she managed to shock it off her. However, that miniature solar flare had weakened Kagero's powers, allowing Yusuke the leeway he needed to break free.

"Damn it, Hikari!" Kagero snarled. "You can handle him yourself. I have other plans." With that said he vanished into his own void, using it to teleport himself out. However, he had been in such a rush that he hadn't concentrated as hard as he was supposed to and he had left behind his black trench coat.

"That's just fine," Hikari said. "I don't need tall, dark, and psycho to help me take you down."

"Oh, as if you're any saner than he is," Yusuke sneered.

"Fuck you," Hikari retorted. "Swords of Searing Light!" Instantly, swords made of light rained down on Yusuke from the sky, slicing him like hot knives.

"You think that's gonna hurt me?" Yusuke asked disdainfully. His clothes had been sliced and so had his skin, which was now marked with bloody gashes which had burnt edges. However, those wounds quickly healed. "And now it's time to take out those other boats. No demon invasion of America tonight. Shotgun Double Barrel."

A barrage of black energy bursts came forth from both of Yusuke's fists, perforating the hull and engines of the assault boats as well as any demons unfortunate enough to be inside. The boats couldn't take the devastating attack and exploded along with their demonic cargo, resulting in a shower of parts both mechanical and organic.

"How do you like that?" Yusuke asked.

"You bastard!" Hikari shouted. "Sunburst!" She hurled a ball of exploding golden light at Yusuke, temporarily blinding him. It didn't take very long for his eyes to heal, but in that time, Hikari came after him with blows that he was unable to evade. In actuality, that would have been the case if Yusuke hadn't been able to see through his crow's eyes, which gave him the edge that he needed to avoid Hikari's attacks.

_Thanks, Puu,_ Yusuke thought.

Abandoning the use of her light techniques, Hikari took a hand-to-hand approach. She performed a roundhouse kick aimed at Yusuke's head, but he moved to the side, barely evading the kick. She didn't stop there; she leaped into the air for a jump kick to Yusuke's head. This time, Yusuke raised an arm to block her kick.

"This is getting boring," the pink-haired light-wielder snarled. "Luminous Shuriken!" She materialized shuriken out of her light energy and threw them at Yusuke, who dodged each and every one.

"C'mon, Hikari, you can do better than this," Yusuke sneered.

In response to that, Hikari suddenly vanished from sight.

"Not the invisibility trick again," Yusuke groaned. "That's old."

Suddenly, Yusuke was struck again and again by an invisible force that darted around him. The blows came so fast that he didn't have time to recover, let alone strike back.

"Fuck," he muttered to himself as the blows kept striking him. Then he remembered something. Light traveled at one hundred eighty-six thousand miles per second. In a fight, a warrior capable of harnessing that kind of speed would be close to invincible, as he or she could move so quickly as to become invisible to the naked eye.

_You're not the only one who can move really fast,_ Yusuke thought. He let a few more blows hit him, since he figured that Hikari was striking him while running circles around him. Then he snapped his arm out in a blindingly fast motion and Hikari smacked straight into it. Fortunately for Yusuke, his resurrection had toughened him up quite a bit; otherwise he might have broken his arm from having someone as fast as Hikari slam into it.

"I think it's time we ended this game, Hikari, don't you?" Yusuke asked.

"You're right. Light Burst of Death!" Hikari shouted, firing a stream of white light at Yusuke, who just stood there and let it hit him. "Ha! I got you, you stupid brat!"

When the light faded, Hikari got a very unpleasant surprise. Namely, Yusuke was still standing and unharmed by the supposedly lethal blast of light.

"Time to die, Hikari," Yusuke sneered.

"I don't think so," Hikari retorted, moving at the speed of light once again.

"That trick again?" Yusuke wondered in a bored tone. "I already know a perfect counter for it. Shotgun." He pushed his fist into the air and bursts of black energy came forth in every direction possible. Even Hikari couldn't dodge and she was viciously perforated by the blasts.

The light manipulator fell to the ground, choking on her blood.

"Any last words?" Yusuke asked.

"Even if you defeat Kagero, you will never beat Toguro," Hikari managed to gasp out before she died.

"Burning Spirit Gun," Yusuke said, firing a blazing blast of black energy at Hikari, incinerating her corpse. He picked up Kagero's trench coat and put it on, noticing that there were laces on the sides and that there were hooks instead of buttons to hold it together. He walked away from the site, not noticing or caring that Hikari's ashes had settled into the image of a crow.

Back in Toguro-Sakyo, Incorporated, Kisuri stared blankly at Toguro and Sakyo. "She is dead as well."

"That means Yusuke must have gotten to her, which means our plan to take America has been set back," Sakyo stated. "It will take considerable time and money to rebuild our assault boats."

"We have a meeting," Toguro said. "We should get there."

The boardroom of the duo's corporate headquarters was occupied by various high-class demons, with the exception of a former Spirit Detective named Shinobu Sensui and his partner Itsuki. The two were humans with incredible spirit powers but neither had any love for humanity. It all had to do with that one mission Koenma had sent Sensui on, a mission that had entailed the forcible cessation of the demon trade. In the process, Sensui had seen the human criminals torturing their demon slaves, a sight that had shattered his belief in the goodness of the human race.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I'm afraid Hikari will not be able to join us tonight, due to a slight case of death," Toguro said. "Anyway, we are gathered here today to discuss a few things."

"Would one of those things be that Yusuke Urameshi punk?" a black-haired lightning demon named Raiko asked with a scowl on her otherwise beautiful features.

"Yes," Toguro confirmed. "I killed him, but he came back and he's waging a one-man war against our empire. He's already taken down three of my lieutenants."

"Speaking of your last lieutenant, didn't he run when Yusuke came for him and Hikari?" a serpentine demon named Hebi asked.

"Kagero had better things to do," Toguro replied.

"A vengeful revenant of a Spirit Detective," Sensui mused. "Interesting."

"Considering you used to be a Spirit Detective, did you ever think about matching your skills against his?" Toguro asked. "Your abilities are similar in the sense that you can both store your spirit energy and fire it."

"That would be an interesting battle," Sensui admitted.

"Fucking hell!" a bat demon named Koumori shouted. "He's gonna kill us all, dammit! That fucking ghost is going to kill us all! We're dead motherfuckers walking! Dead, damn you all! Dead!"

"Get a grip," Raiko snarled.

"Don't you get it?!" Koumori asked, his voice sounding angry and frightened at the same time. "That motherfucker Urameshi can't be killed! Toguro, your dead lieutenants threw their most lethal efforts at him and he didn't die! He's not going to stop until we're all dead, dammit, and he's especially gunning for you!"

Toguro finally lost his patience and punched Koumori in the face, knocking him out of his seat and onto the ground.

"We're all dead," Koumori murmured. "We're all gonna die."

"What's gotten into him?" Hebi asked sarcastically.

"What about the resistance?" a lizard demon named Tokage asked. "Won't they try to get Urameshi to join them?"

"We won't have to worry about the resistance much longer," Sakyo replied. "Kagero's taking care of them right now."

"Once we crush the resistance, we'll be free to move onto other things," Toguro added. "Like the conquest of the Western nations. Once the entire human world is under our control, we'll wipe out the humans."

"Wipe out the humans?" a demonic geomancer named Jimen echoed.

"Yes," Toguro confirmed. "We'll slaughter them all, and then we'll use their bodies as fuel for the biggest bonfire the worlds have ever seen, so big that Spirit World will take notice. How does that sound to you?"

"Sounds like a very good idea," Sensui replied.

"It sounds like I'm a little worm on a big fucking hook," Koumori murmured.

Toguro allowed himself a snicker. "Your mother must be very proud of you."

It was at that moment that the crow landed on the table. "What the fuck is that doing here?" Sensui's right-hand man, codenamed Sniper, asked.

"It's Yusuke Urameshi," Itsuki replied.

"Recognition is so gratifying, isn't it?" Yusuke said as he walked in wearing a black trench coat over his clothes. "Sorry I'm late, ladies and gentlemen. Traffic was murder." He said this with a cruel, ironic smirk on his blackened lips.

"Yusuke," Toguro purred. "So good to see you again."

"Yes, can I call my maid to get you something to drink?" Sakyo asked.

"All I want to drink is your blood," Yusuke coldly replied.

"What do you want here?" Toguro asked.

"Vengeance. Or justice, depending on how you look at my motives for all this killing," Yusuke replied nonchalantly as he jumped onto the table.

"You're not getting either," Toguro declared.

"I see you've made your decision," Yusuke said. "Now let's see you enforce it." He spread his arms out in the crucifix position.

"This is boring me . . . kill him," Toguro ordered.

With the exception of a frightened Koumori, every demon and spirit-powered human in the room fired at Yusuke, knocking him off the table.

"That got him," Toguro remarked.

"Wait," Hebi said. "I don't see anything where he fell." He bent to look under the table and was surprised when a hand reached out and pulled him under, followed by a sick stabbing sound. Mere moments later, Yusuke rolled out from under the table and into a standing fighting position.

"Shotgun," he commanded, firing five beams of black energy out of his fist, each beam striking a demon in the heart.

Sniper took five six-sided dice out of his pocket and fired each one at the speed of a bullet, their target being Yusuke. His aura enabled him to deflect the bullets, making them hit five other targets, one of them being Itsuki. The speed at which the bullets traveled made for almost instantaneous death to their targets upon impact.

Sakyo excused himself, as he had no powers whatsoever with which to mount a defense or an offense.

"You're all going to die," Yusuke declared coldly.

"So you say," Sensui replied nonchalantly, creating a soccer ball-shaped orb of purple energy in his hand. "Raikou-Resshuuken!" As he shouted this, he kicked the orb at Yusuke, who was surprised by the attack. The attack in question detonated against his midsection and knocked him into a wall.

"That hurt," Yusuke said sarcastically. "Not." He glared at Sensui. "So what's your story, huh? I can tell by your spirit energy that you're human like I was, so why side with Toguro?"

"Because humanity deserves extinction," Sensui replied with cold anger in his voice. "If you saw the things I saw twelve years ago, then you would not be so eager to give this world back to the humans."

"What did you see?" Yusuke asked.

"Like you, I was once a Spirit Detective," Sensui explained. "Since I was but a child, I had the power to sense and kill demons and other evil entities. When I was about the same age as you, Koenma recruited me as a Spirit Detective. One day, he sent me on a mission to stop the trade of demons as slaves, a trade led by Sakyo. When I broke into his mansion, I saw demons being tortured by their human masters. It was the most sickening thing I ever saw."

"Boo fucking hoo," Yusuke sneered unsympathetically. "So you saw a bunch of demons being tortured by humans. Was that what made you go all 'humans must be destroyed'?"

"That was the least of it," Sensui replied. "What I saw that day shattered my faith in the 'goodness' of humanity. Later on, I found a very interesting video kept by Spirit World, a video known as Chapter Black. Thousands of hours of footage of humanity's sins, and they are many. It confirmed my suspicions about the depravity of humanity."

"There are good people in the world!" Yusuke protested. "They don't deserve what Toguro and Sakyo have done to them!"

"This coming from someone who believed everyone to be nothing more than hypocrites and liars," Sensui remarked. "Well, Yusuke, humanity is far worse than that. They're also murderers, thieves, torturers, and exploiters."

"I've seen shit on the six o'clock news that pissed me off about people," Yusuke admitted. "But there's no reason for writing off the human race."

"Enough talk," Sensui said. "Splinter Resshuuken!" He created a swarm of twenty-five bullet-like orbs and gathered them together, then kicked them at Yusuke, who tried to dodge them. However, the orbs followed him until they detonated all around him. Sensui smirked.

"What the hell are you smiling about?" Yusuke asked coldly.

"You're still alive," Sensui replied in an unsurprised tone.

"You can't kill a fucking ghost," Yusuke said, "or whatever the fuck it is I am."

"It doesn't matter anymore," Toguro replied. "You could kill me right now if you wanted, Yusuke, but I thought you'd be more concerned with your friends in the resistance."

"How do you know about that?" Yusuke asked.

"You would be surprised what I know about your resistance friends," Toguro replied with a cold smirk. "And you want to know how I know? There is a mole in your resistance. He has been there since the resistance recruited him and he has been feeding us information ever since. That's why Kagero left Hikari to die during your fight, to lead my demons against the resistance."

Yusuke kept his expression neutral but his auburn eyes were burning with rage.

"Tick-tock, Yusuke," Toguro mocked. "Tick-tock."

Yusuke turned around and ran out of the boardroom, his crow flying ahead of him. As he escaped onto the rooftops, several thoughts went through his mind. The first thought was, _Keiko._ The second thought was _I have to save her._ The third thought was, _I have to stop Kagero from wiping out the resistance._ The fourth and final thought was, _when I find that no-account punk-ass who sold us out, I'm gonna rip him a new asshole._

Yusuke found the secret entrance to the resistance's headquarters inside the abandoned subway. He desperately raced into the headquarters only to find it empty and desecrated.

"Find the traitor," he ordered the crow, which obediently flew out of the headquarters and outside where the rain had started. Yusuke followed it into the rain and found Kiyoshi, wearing a slicker over his clothes. "You."

"Yes, me," Kiyoshi replied evenly.

"Why?" Yusuke asked. "The resistance gave you a home! They saved you from being murdered by Toguro's forces! And you did this to them?!"

"They're fools for trying to save the humans," Kiyoshi replied. "We're a damned race that deserves extinction!"

"You're just like that other bastard I met," Yusuke snarled.

Kiyoshi took out a knife and sliced his hand with it. He then squeezed that hand, the blood oozing out of the wound and landing on the soaked ground. From that spot an amorphous monster made from water rose.

"Your water monster doesn't scare me," Yusuke sneered.

"It will," Kiyoshi replied just before the hydro-beast descended upon the undead Spirit Detective.

To be continued . . .

Next: Botan again and my, are we in serious trouble! Yusuke doesn't know what's become of the resistance or of Keiko, but he's determined to find out! In the meantime, he has to fight his way through the double agent Kiyoshi Mitarai, the bitter former Spirit Detective Sensui, and Toguro's final surviving lieutenant Kagero. Having unlimited spirit powers from becoming a revenant should give Yusuke the edge against them, but that doesn't mean they'll make it easy. All this and more next time in "The Crow: Spirit Bullet."


	6. Chapter 5: Descending With a Smile

"The Crow: Spirit Bullet"

Chapter 5: "Descending With a Smile"

Disclaimer: If I owned Yu Yu Hakusho and The Crow, do you think I'd be writing stories about them and posting them online for free? Yoshihiro Togashi owns Yu Yu Hakusho and James O'Barr owns The Crow.

Author's note: Sorry about the delay; the real world has been keeping me busy. Specifically, I had to write three essays for three different classes. Now that that's over, I've got some spare time on my hands, which means I can write some more.

Previously in "The Crow: Spirit Bullet": After reuniting with Keiko, Yusuke agreed to fight alongside the Spirit World resistance force. His first act upon joining them was to stop the planned transpacific deployment of demon soldiers to America in a traditionally violent fashion, culminating in the killing of Hikari. Yusuke proceeded to break into a board meeting at Toguro-Sakyo, Inc. and kill many of those present. His rampage of vengeance was stopped only when Toguro revealed to him that there was a spy in the resistance. Fearing for the lives of Keiko and his allies, Yusuke raced back to the resistance's headquarters only to find it deserted and to be confronted by the spy --- Kiyoshi Mitarai.

The hydro-beast opened its mouth and fired a torrent of water at Yusuke, who dodged and fired a Spirit Gun blast at it. Unfortunately for Yusuke, the dark energy blast didn't do anything to the beast at all. He should have expected as much, since the beast was made entirely of water.

"That was kinda silly of you, wasn't it?" Kiyoshi mocked. "There are only two things objects can do when they touch water: float or pass through."

"I'm still gonna kill that thing!" Yusuke snarled. "And when I'm done with it, you're next, you miserable double-crossing piece of shit!"

"Humanity doesn't deserve to live," Kiyoshi stated simply, as if it were a fact that everyone should know.

"How would you know that?" Yusuke asked angrily. "Who the fuck decides if an entire race is worth destroying?! You? That freak Sensui?! You're not Kami!"

"You don't know," Kiyoshi stated in a tone that was a mixture of sadness and anger. Chuckling bitterly, he continued on. "You're trying to save a doomed race, Yusuke Urameshi."

"Says you," Yusuke retorted before pointing both fingers at the hydro-beast in a gun-firing position. "Spirit Gun Automatic." He fired a barrage of Spirit Gun blasts out of both fingers like automatic assault weapons. The blasts perforated the hydro-beast but they served no real purpose as it just regenerated.

"Did you think a new variation of the same tired trick would do anything different?" Kiyoshi asked.

"I gotta ask," Yusuke replied, "why the hell are you siding with Toguro and his demon thugs?"

"I told you before, humanity doesn't deserve to live," Kiyoshi replied. "We've condemned ourselves to extinction through our sins."

"Yeah, I get that the human race as a whole has done a lot of fucked-up things," Yusuke said, "but that doesn't mean we fucking give up and trash 'em all!"

"There's no hope for us, Yusuke," Kiyoshi stated bitterly. "Our only hope for salvation lies in death."

"Shut up!" Yusuke screamed. "I'm sick of hearing you talk! All you talk about is how we're doomed as a race and how we all deserve to die!"

"Because we do!" Kiyoshi screamed back, losing his cool composure. "Don't you get it?! If you'd been through what I'd been through, seen what I'd seen, you'd be on our side!"

"I've heard enough out of you," Yusuke snarled. "Like I said before, I'm gonna tear apart that beast and then I'm coming for you, you double-crossing worm. Shotgun."

Like he had done with Akuhi in his dragon form, Yusuke fired the Shotgun as a tightly concentrated wave of energy bursts, all aimed at the center of Kiyoshi's hydro-beast. The blasts tore the hydro-beast apart, leaving it nothing more than a puddle on the ground, virtually indistinguishable from the other puddles formed by the rain.

"There," Yusuke said. "I took care of your stupid monster. Now all that's left is you."

Kiyoshi just smiled.

"What the hell are you smiling for, punk?" Yusuke asked.

"You'll see," Kiyoshi replied.

"Is that so?" Yusuke asked as he stalked toward Kiyoshi. However, his path was interrupted when water sprouted from the puddle in front of him like a geyser. Before he had a chance to do anything about it, the water wrapped around Yusuke and swallowed him. "Ahhhh! Shit! What the fuck!?"

"Did you think my beast would stay dead forever?" Kiyoshi asked. "Water always eventually returns to its original state. Why should my beast be any different?"

Yusuke struggled inside the hydro-beast. Sure, he had no actual need to breathe but that didn't mean he was all right with being swallowed by that traitor's damned monster.

"What the hell is this?" Yusuke asked angrily.

"You're in my Territory now," Kiyoshi replied, "a dimension made entirely of water. To escape, you have to beat me --- and to beat me, you have to escape. Somehow, I don't see either of that happening."

Yusuke struggled ferociously but to no avail. Kiyoshi's Territory had him firmly in its grip and it had no intention of releasing him anytime soon. He was trapped like a mouse in a mousetrap, or a rat in a rattrap, or a gorilla in a cage.

_Damn it!_ Yusuke cursed silently. _I've gotta find a way out of his Territory!_ He let out a scream of rage that was distorted by Kiyoshi's watery Territory. _Damn him! I'm trapped like a fucking gorilla in a fucking cage!_

As his rage grew so did his aura. Black energy surrounded him with red energy crackling in it. Said energy converged at the tip of his right index finger, which he pointed in a gun-firing pose.

"Not another Spirit Gun," Kiyoshi moaned, rolling his eyes. "It didn't work when you were outside my Territory and it won't work now that you're inside it."

"This isn't another Spirit Gun, traitor," Yusuke retorted coldly. "I call it --- the Dimension Gun." He fired the black-and-red energy out of his finger and to Kiyoshi's amazement . . . it pierced the hydro-beast and punched a hole in his chest. The hydro-beast dissipated and Yusuke landed agilely on his feet.

"How . . . did you do that?" Kiyoshi asked, clutching his bleeding chest.

Yusuke didn't say anything to the other boy; he just walked over to him. "Shit, you're bleeding. Let me see."

"Sure," Kiyoshi conceded, letting go of his chest. Yusuke felt the wound.

"I'm no doctor or medical student, but even I can tell that my blast didn't hit any vital points," he said. "The only way you'd possibly die now is if you bled to death and with you bleeding all over yourself there's a good chance of that happening."

"Why are you so concerned about me?" Kiyoshi asked. "I just tried to kill you and I helped Kagero to capture or kill your friends."

"Lift your arms," Yusuke ordered. "I have to remove your shirt."

"Why?" Kiyoshi asked.

"I only did it once, but I can use my power to heal people," Yusuke replied. "I can do the same for you . . . if you'll trust me."

Kiyoshi couldn't reply, as he was passing out from blood loss. So Yusuke removed the other boy's yellow sweatshirt for him and then his undershirt. He cut his wrist with his Kukri knife and held it over Kiyoshi's wound, letting his blood seep into it and mix with the other boy's blood. The mixed blood retreated into the wound and the wound closed.

The water psychic immediately began to regain consciousness. "I'm alive," he said in hushed tones.

"Of course you are," Yusuke replied, giving Kiyoshi back his undershirt and sweatshirt.

"Why did you save me?" Kiyoshi asked after he'd put his undershirt and sweatshirt back on.

"In all honesty, I should have let you die," Yusuke admitted. "For all I know, Keiko and my friends could all be dead or captured or worse. For that I should have let you die, but an old friend of mine once said, 'When men do what they should, it's not always about what they want.' So I couldn't let you die no matter how much I hated you at that moment."

"This isn't . . . this isn't how he told me it was," Kiyoshi murmured.

"Isn't how who told you it was?" Yusuke prompted.

"Sensui," Kiyoshi replied. "He was the one who got me into spying for Toguro. He told me that all humans exist for is to hurt each other."

"Why did you believe him?" Yusuke asked. He got the answer to that when his hand brushed against Kiyoshi's arm.

_Yusuke saw the world through Kiyoshi's eyes. Before the demons had taken over Japan and much of the Eastern hemisphere, Kiyoshi had been a lonely boy, ignored by his peers at best and tormented by them at worst. No one had ever reached out to him and any hand extended to him was extended to land a blow on his vulnerable frame._

_Ironically enough, the opening of the gate to Demon World had resulted in the awakening of many human psychics, Kiyoshi among them. Toguro had ordered a purge of all human psychics but the Spirit World resistance had made a habit of saving as many of them as they could. Sensui had become aware of this and found Kiyoshi, recruiting him as his spy after persuading him by showing him a videotape known as Chapter Black._

The flashbacks finally stopped at that point. "What the hell is Chapter Black?"

"It's a videotape Sensui stole from Spirit World," Kiyoshi replied. "It contains thousands of hours of footage of every horrible deed committed by the human race. Concentration camps, war crimes, genocide, slavery --- it goes on and on and on! Just five minutes of seeing such horrors would make a human being turn against his own kind."

Yusuke was silent after that. _All those things Kiyoshi lived through and saw,_ he thought. _I've seen shit that really pissed me the fuck off about people and here I am trying to save them. Could Kiyoshi and Sensui be right? Am I fighting for a lost cause?_

He shook his head viciously, as though he was trying to force out demons. _No, I can't believe that! There are good people in the world! Like Kuwabara, and Genkai, and Keiko, and Shizuru!_

"You're both wrong," Yusuke stated finally. "No matter what's been done to you or how you think the human race fucked up, we don't all deserve to all go up in flames."

"Don't you get it, Yusuke?" Kiyoshi asked sadly. "Ever since humanity was conceived, all it's sought is to destroy itself. Sensui and Toguro are just helping it along."

Yusuke said nothing for what seemed like an eternity but really only was ten seconds. When he spoke at last, it was with a heavy heart.

"Do you think we're that bad?" he asked Kiyoshi. "I know the human race isn't perfect, but do you think we've done that badly by each other that we should all die?" Hearing no immediate answer from Kiyoshi, he pressed on. "I saved your life when I could have just let you die. What does that tell you about people?"

"I . . . don't know anymore," Kiyoshi admitted.

"All right, enough beating around the bush," Yusuke said abruptly. "What the fuck did Kagero and his punk-ass friends do with Keiko and my friends?"

"By the time Kagero and his crew showed up, Kurama had already organized a retreat," Kiyoshi replied. "He, Hiei, Touya, Jin, and Rinku had already managed to get away with about half of the trainees. The others stayed back and tried to fight back. The ones that weren't killed were captured."

"What about Keiko?" Yusuke asked in a voice that was slightly more insistent than earlier.

"Kagero took her," Kiyoshi replied. "He knew how important she was to you and figured she'd make a good hostage. Not to demand anything from you in exchange for her safety but just to torture you. That's the kind of sick freak he is; he likes to see his enemies suffer emotionally. That's why his favorite victims are lovers; he likes to see the helplessness on their faces when they realize that there's nothing they can do to save each other."

"You're coming with me," Yusuke declared, his auburn eyes aflame with hellish rage.

"Why?" Kiyoshi asked in a confused tone.

"Because you're Sensui's spy," Yusuke replied. "That means you've got some idea of what's going on with Toguro and his freaks. 'Sides, think of it as your big chance to redeem yourself."

"All right," Kiyoshi relented. "I'll come with you."

"Good," Yusuke said. "I already know where to go. Toguro-Sakyo, Inc., here the fuck we come. Hold on to your hats, you shit-eating sons of bitches."

Yusuke and Kiyoshi walked to the corporate headquarters of Toguro-Sakyo, Inc. as the crow watched over them from above. However, their arrival did not go unanticipated.

"Sensui, are you ready to face Yusuke?" Toguro asked.

Sensui smirked coldly at the sunglasses-wearing demon. "I've been looking forward to pitting my skills against Yusuke's since I found out he walked the earth once again. I'm ready for him."

"Good," Sakyo said. "Because here he comes." He pointed to a screen showing what was currently being recorded on the corporate complex's security cameras: Yusuke and Kiyoshi racing down the halls, presumably looking for Toguro.

"I knew Kiyoshi didn't have it in him," Sensui sneered. "He is still too attached to this world, despite the cruelties it has visited upon him." Without any more words he departed to greet Yusuke and Kiyoshi.

Yusuke and Kiyoshi raced down the halls, searching for the kidnapped trainees and Spirit World resistance fighters. Sensui arrived just in time to interrupt that search.

"Hello, Yusuke and Kiyoshi," Sensui greeted with a deadly smile. "How goes it?"

"Sensui," Yusuke snarled. "Recruiting tormented kids to do your dirty work, huh? How low can you sink, you son of a bitch?"

"Yusuke, you and I both were Spirit Detectives at one point or another," Sensui stated. "As Spirit Detectives we were charged with the task of protecting the universe. That's what I'm doing."

"You think destroying humanity is the way to protect the universe?" Yusuke asked, genuinely horrified by his predecessor's words.

"Yes," Sensui replied. "Humanity is a disease, Yusuke. The only way to cure the universe is to purge humanity from its system."

"You're one sick fuck, you know that?" Yusuke snapped, glaring at him. "I don't have time for this shit. I've gotta find my friends and the trainees that Kagero kidnapped."

"Sounds like you're looking for an excuse to back out of this fight," Sensui replied with a smirk. "Kiyoshi can look for your fallen friends while you and I battle."

"As much as I hate to say it, this psycho's right," Yusuke admitted to Kiyoshi. "Without any water around, your powers are no good and I don't feel like risking your life."

"I'm already risking my life by being here and on your side," Kiyoshi replied.

"Oh yeah," Yusuke said in delayed realization.

"It's all right," Kiyoshi said before turning around and running off into a side hallway.

"Now that he's out of the way, you and I can get down to business," Yusuke stated. He lunged at Sensui with insanely fast punches. However, Sensui blocked each and every one of his punches _without moving an inch from his spot._ Finally, Sensui kicked Yusuke in the solar plexus, sending the undead Spirit Detective crashing into a wall. _What the fuck was that?_ Yusuke wondered.

"Surprised, Yusuke?" Sensui asked. "That was the Resshuuken, a style of martial arts that relies on fast footwork. As you've experienced just now, it works by blocking attacks with your hands and then retaliating with powerful kicks."

"Am I supposed to be impressed?" Yusuke asked as he got up.

"Arrogant boy," Sensui replied. "You may be stronger and faster than I am and you may be unable to die, but I will still win this fight. Allow me to tell you the reasons."

"Oh, I'm just dying to know what exactly is going to prevent me from kicking your ass," Yusuke retorted.

"Reason number one: You're too predictable," Sensui stated. He summoned twenty-five or thirty small energy orbs and combined them into one medium-sized orb. "Remember this, Yusuke? This leads us to reason number two: You're too accustomed to fighting your opponents one at a time. This attack was formed out of the necessity to deal with multiple opponents. Splinter Resshuuken!" When his foot touched the orb, it split into twenty-five or thirty smaller orbs that attacked Yusuke all at once.

Yusuke tried to dodge the Splinter Resshuuken, but the energy orbs simply followed him, striking with vicious accuracy.

_Damn, if I could feel pain, that would hurt a lot,_ Yusuke thought.

"Reason number three: I'm simply more skilled and more experienced than you," Sensui added.

_Screw this,_ Yusuke thought and charged Sensui, not minding the energy orbs that were still attacking him. He felt them but they didn't hurt him at all. He made it past the Splinter Resshuuken and punched Sensui in the face, knocking him to the ground. "How's that? If you're so skilled and experienced, how come I just knocked you to the ground?"

"I haven't put my full effort into it, that's why," Sensui replied. "Watch carefully, Yusuke. I'm about to show you a rare form of spirit energy, a form that only a few fighters per lifetime have ever mastered."

Yusuke's interest was piqued at that moment. _This better be worth my time,_ he thought. His next thought was, _Holy shit, his aura is growing!_

Indeed it was. Sensui's aura was growing and it was causing him to glow an interesting ethereal shade of golden. In fact, his aura had grown so immense that it was pushing Yusuke back.

"See this, Yusuke?" Sensui asked as Yusuke struggled against his aura. "This is Sacred Energy. Only one out of every five thousand fighters has mastered this energy, the reason being that it is so incredibly difficult to do so. But for those like me who have, mastery brings about a rewarding experience. Sacred Energy is so powerful that even a relatively weak fighter can become an extremely formidable opponent, so imagine what it's like for someone as strong as I am."

Despite himself, Yusuke was in awe when he looked at the glowing Sensui. Irrationally, he thought, _He looks like an angel._

"Yes, Yusuke, I do look like an angel, don't I?" Sensui responded, as though he had read Yusuke's mind. "Don't look so shocked. I can't read minds but that was an easy enough guess. In the early days of Spirit Detectives, the first fighters to master Sacred Energy were called 'angels' by the demons they fought. That's where human religions that include angels came from."

Sensui charged at Yusuke and kicked him into a wall with such tremendous force that the undead Spirit Detective was _embedded _into the wall.

"As for the key to mastering Sacred Energy, mastery requires an innate desire to correct the world," the madman continued. "Something your deceased mentor discovered that she did not possess."

"You think you're pretty tough, don't you," Yusuke snarled as he pulled himself out of the wall, "with that Sacred Energy of yours. Guess what, motherfucker? I got my own kind of energy that I can take you down with!" With that declaration Yusuke powered up, his aura growing much the same way Sensui's had. However, Yusuke glowed an unholy deep violet color.

Sensui smirked. "I was waiting for this. So this is the unique aura of those guarded by the crow."

"Sounds like you've seen this before," Yusuke remarked.

"Yes, I have," Sensui confirmed. "Necrotic Energy. The reanimated corpse of a powerful fighter can tap into an inexhaustible well of spiritual energy, energy born from the depths of the underworld. Those that have seen fighters wield such energy have called those fighters 'angels of death.'" He chuckled. "So about it, Yusuke? An angel of death versus an angel of light."

"You're going down, Sensui," Yusuke snarled and in the blink of an eye he was in Sensui's face. He viciously punched Sensui in the face and sent him flying into a wall. However, Sensui somersaulted backwards and landed on his feet. Then he bounced off the wall and kicked Yusuke from an unexpected angle.

Yusuke rolled on the ground before leaping back up on his feet. "Don't think I'm out just yet, motherfucker."

The battle resumed, both glowing fighters charging at each other. They met in midair with extremely fast punches and kicks. However, neither one of them could lay a finger on the other. For each punch that was thrown, an arm would be raised to block it. For every kick, the would-be recipient would simply move out of the way.

"This is getting pointless," Sensui stated, backing away from Yusuke.

"What's the matter, tough guy?" Yusuke asked. "You seem so afraid of me all of a sudden."

"Me? Afraid of you?" Sensui asked. "Don't make me laugh. I've just decided that a change of clothes is in order." The golden glow of Sacred Energy began to solidify and condense around Sensui, causing Yusuke to stare and wonder just what the hell his predecessor was up to. He got his answer when the golden glow became blue armor that covered Sensui's torso and pelvis and a cloak.

"What's with the armor?" Yusuke asked irritably. "You look like a cross between a knight and some fucked-up sorcerer from an RPG."

"This is my Spirit Defense Armor," Sensui replied with a smirk. "As you might be able to infer from the name, it boosts my defensive abilities to their maximum potential."

"Whoop-de-frickin'-doo!" Yusuke snapped. "Let's see you defend against this! Machine Spirit Gun." A rapid barrage of black energy bullets came forth from Yusuke's finger, but Sensui was blocking them all with ease. "What the fuck?!"

"Spirit Defense Armor, remember?" Sensui remarked.

"You bastard!" Yusuke snarled, charging at Sensui and directing swift punches and kicks to his skull. Unfortunately, the Defense Armor enabled Sensui to block each and every one of his attacks.

"Is this the best you can do, Yusuke Urameshi?" Sensui asked mockingly.

"You haven't seen my best yet, bitch," Yusuke snarled in response. His fist glowed with black light. "In case you don't know this, you're not the only one with an attack that can work against multiple opponents. Shotgun."

With the method of release, it was like a wall of black energy bullets aimed directly at Sensui. Unfortunately, the madman came out largely unscathed.

"What the hell is going on!?" Yusuke asked angrily. "You should have been dead by now!"

"Really, Yusuke?" Sensui asked. "You forgot about my Spirit Defense Armor. Even if an attack manages to penetrate my defenses, the armor will absorb the damage."

_What the fuck do I do now?_ Yusuke asked himself. _That Spirit Defense Armor makes it pointless for me to attack! Ahhh! What do I do? How can I win!?_

"Is it finally sinking in that you can't win?" Sensui asked.

"Why are you working with Toguro and his thugs?" Yusuke asked. "You were a Spirit Detective once, like I was! You're supposed to be protecting humanity, not conspiring with demons to kill them all off!"

"Our motives might be different, but our goals are the same," Sensui replied. "The demons want to eliminate humanity because they want this world to be theirs. I want to eliminate humanity because it has committed too many evils to be spared. The demons fight with evil and greed on their side, the same qualities that have damned humanity to its fate, while _I _fight with justice on my side." His armor changed from blue to yellow.

"What is that?" Yusuke asked.

"My Spirit Offense Armor," Sensui replied. "It increases my offensive capabilities to their maximum potential. And one more thing about justice, Yusuke: It _kills!_" That last word was accented with a vicious kick to Yusuke's solar plexus that sent the undead Spirit Detective crashing into a wall.

"Miserable fucker!" Yusuke screamed. "Shotgun Double Barrel." Shotgun blasts came out of both fists, resulting in a massive barrage of energy bullets aimed for Sensui, who dodged as many as he could. However, the volume of Shotgun blasts was so immense that not even he could dodge them all. "Your mistake was switching from defense to offense, shit-face. I figured once you didn't have your defense-boosting armor anymore, you wouldn't be fast enough to avoid all of those Shotgun blasts."

"Yusuke, Yusuke, Yusuke," Sensui mocked as he rose to his feet. "Why do you keep trying so hard?"

"Because I know that there are genuinely good people in this world," Yusuke replied, "something _you_ forgot. Yeah, I think I got you all figured out. In your mind, there's just good and evil with no room for shades of gray. You believed humans were good and demons were evil, but when you saw demons getting tortured by humans, you couldn't adjust your worldview to cope with it. So you decided that humans were the true evil and joined up with Toguro and his crew because they wanted to kill off all the humans, too!"

"Close, but no cigar," Sensui said. "We humans are capable of justifying anything. That's what makes us so evil, because under any circumstances, we can kill and come up with some convenient excuse for it. That's why I like demons. They don't make excuses. They accept their evil."

"Shut . . . UP!" Yusuke screamed, lunging at Sensui and punching him in the face. He followed up with a vicious kick to Sensui's torso before flipping away from him. He clenched his hand into a fist, concentrating his aura in it as it began to glow with crackling black light.

"What, are you going to punch me again?" Sensui asked.

"This fight has gone on long enough," Yusuke replied. "Good-bye, Sensui. I'll see you in hell. Death Magnum." In a blur of almost incomprehensible speed, Yusuke lunged at Sensui and punched him with his glowing fist. Sensui raised a hand to block his fist but upon contact, the dark energy transferred to him and engulfed him.

The former Spirit Detective screamed in agony. "What's happening to me?!" he asked.

"Necrotic Energy," Yusuke replied. "The power of death channeled into my fist . . . and no living creature can handle it once it mixes with their aura. The death aura causes their own aura to turn on them, killing them from the inside out."

Cracks formed in Sensui's Spirit Offense Armor and in his body, releasing what looked like black liquid light. Sensui collapsed to the ground as the liquid energy bled out of him.

Yusuke watched as Sensui bled the tainted aura out. Once he was sure that the other Spirit Detective was dead, he ran to find Kiyoshi. Hopefully, he'd already freed the others.

Unfortunately, a figure emerged from the shadows and punched Yusuke in the face. Yusuke just got up and grinned evilly at the figure. "Kagero, nice to see you again. You ready to fight this time around, or are you gonna run again?"

"That's my coat you're wearing," Kagero replied.

"Yeah, I know," Yusuke mocked. "It looks good on me."

"I'm gonna rip that coat off your dead body, you human freak," Kagero threatened.

"I'm already dead, but bring it on, anyway," Yusuke replied coolly, shifting into a rather strange fighting stance. Although Kagero didn't know this, it was the stance that Genkai used when she performed the Spirit Wave technique.

"What do you think you're doing?" Kagero asked.

Yusuke's aura surged as his eyes glowed a hellish red. "You'll find out soon. You'll be dead soon after that, but you'll find out."

"How about I put your sorry ass back in the coffin instead of waiting for you to pull off your stupid move?" Kagero suggested before forming his shadow aura into a sword and charging at Yusuke, who was smirking cruelly at him as he advanced.

"Time to say your prayers, motherfucker," Yusuke sneered before delivering a vicious kick that had been boosted by the power of the Spirit Wave. Kagero found himself flying headlong into the wall. "I don't have time for this shit. I gotta find my friends and Keiko."

"Oh, the little human bitch?" Kagero asked mockingly as he removed himself from the wall. "She's perfectly safe, Urameshi."

"Where is she?" Yusuke asked angrily as he followed up with a vicious punch that was charged with the power of the Spirit Wave. This time, Kagero caught the punch and squeezed Yusuke's fist painfully. Of course, it would have been painful if Yusuke was still capable of feeling pain.

"She's being cared for," Kagero replied in that eerily calm voice that just pissed Yusuke off. The undead Spirit Detective just grabbed Kagero's wrist and had a vision.

_Keiko, bound and gagged, wondering where she was. She looked around her and all she saw was darkness with faint slivers of light peeping out from between the bars of the door window._

"Bastard!" Yusuke cursed as he set off a Shotgun right into Kagero's hand. Kagero screamed in pain as his hand was blown apart by Yusuke's Shotgun blast.

"You'll pay for that, you little shit!" Kagero screamed in both pain and rage. "You wanna be reunited with that little bitch so badly? Guess what? Never gonna happen!" He extended his other hand and a black hole opened in it, generating an unholy wind that swept Yusuke up and sucked him inside the hole. Oddly enough, Yusuke didn't even attempt to resist.

Kagero chuckled to himself. Sure, it'd cost him a hand, but it was worth it. That human punk Urameshi was dead.

_Dead, am I?_ Yusuke's voice asked.

"What was that?" Kagero asked.

_Me, dipshit,_ Yusuke's voice replied.

"You're supposed to be dead," Kagero growled. "I absorbed you. I transported you into the void! There should be nothing left of you!"

_The void is your soul, right?_ Yusuke replied. _In that case, I'm right where I need to be so I can kill you._

"You kill me?" Kagero asked. "That's a laugh."

_Not really,_ Yusuke replied. _And you won't be finding it so funny once I'm done with you._ Kagero heard his voice chanting something but it was not a chant he recognized. As the chant continued, Kagero could feel a strange power growing within him. However, it was not a power that he could use. It was a power whose growth worried him, mainly because it was starting to seep into his own aura.

When the chant finished, Kagero screamed as a stabbing pain made itself known in his gut. Energy began to pour out of his mouth and eyes as he screamed. Finally, he died in an explosion of black light and blood.

The fading light from Kagero's explosive death revealed a black-clad boy with a black crow painted on his white face.

Yusuke Urameshi.

"Now it's your turn, Toguro," he snarled as he turned around and ran. First, he would make sure Kiyoshi was all right and had found his friends. Once that was taken care of, he'd find Keiko, and once he was certain that she was all right . . . then he would unleash hell on Toguro.

To be continued . . .

Next: Botan here and we are winding down toward the finish. Yusuke's ready to take down Toguro once and for all and with the power of the crow behind him, he just might do it. But Toguro's gotten even stronger since two years before and he might just prove to be a match for Yusuke's powers. And just when it seems that all is lost, a surprising new power makes itself known to Yusuke. How it happens? You'll just have to read the next chapter to find out. All this and more next time in "The Crow: Spirit Bullet."


	7. Chapter 6: Until the Sun Rises Up

"The Crow: Spirit Bullet"

Chapter 6: "Until the Sun Rises Up"

Disclaimer: Yu Yu Hakusho and The Crow do not belong to me. The former belongs to Yoshihiro Togashi and the latter belongs to James O'Barr.

Author's note: This is it. The beginning of the end, but whose end are we talking about here? Yusuke's or Toguro's? Let's find out, shall we?

Previously in "The Crow: Spirit Bullet": During their battle, Kiyoshi trapped Yusuke inside his hydro-beast, which doubled as his Territory. Yusuke managed to free himself through a dimension-breaching Spirit Gun that also wounded Kiyoshi. After being saved by Yusuke's blood, Kiyoshi began to realize that maybe humanity wasn't as deserving of destruction as the traitorous former Spirit Detective Shinobu Sensui had led him to believe. This led Kiyoshi to join forces with Yusuke in saving those that had been captured in Kagero's raid on the Spirit World resistance force's headquarters. When they encountered Sensui and Kagero, Yusuke made quick work of them by using their powers against them.

Keiko sat in her darkened cell, the only light she could see streaming out from the slits in the door. She couldn't speak or scream for help, since she had been gagged.

She closed her eyes and remembered the attack.

_Yuriko, a trainee with precognitive abilities, had foreseen an attack on the resistance's headquarters. In response to her vision, Kurama had arranged for himself, Hiei, Touya, Jin, and Rinku to escape with Keiko and as many of the trainees as they could take. The others would stay and fight. Unfortunately, things hadn't gone as Kurama had planned._

_Kagero__ had arrived with a veritable army of demons and it had turned into a massacre. Kurama, Hiei, Touya, Jin, and Rinku had managed to escape with some of the trainees. However, Kagero had captured Keiko and his army had slaughtered half of the remaining trainees along with Chu and Bui. The rest had been captured._

Keiko's memory was interrupted by a voice speaking her name. That voice belonged to none other than Toguro.

"Time to go," he said, opening her cell and grabbing her arm. He led her out of the cell and began walking through the corridors of his and Sakyo's corporate headquarters. He paused in front of a stairway before opening the door and dragging Keiko up the stairs. Once they reached the top of the stairs, Toguro opened the door and walked out onto the roof with his prisoner, where there was a helicopter waiting.

Meanwhile, Yusuke was still searching for Keiko and Toguro when a psychic flash interrupted him.

_A helicopter flew away from Toguro-Sakyo, Inc. while Toguro and Keiko were inside. Keiko was still gagged but her eyes clearly displayed her fear._

"Toguro," Yusuke snarled under his breath. Then screaming with all his rage and hatred, "TOGURO!" His aura spiked tremendously with the sheer intensity of his rage, causing all the windows in the Toguro-Sakyo, Inc. building to shatter.

His eyes burning crimson with fury, Yusuke was about to jump out through one of the windows that he had psychically shattered when he felt a familiar presence inside the corporate headquarters. For some reason he did not understand, he did not immediately dismiss the presence for his vengeance but instead went to track it down.

He found himself in front of a door. He tried to open it, only to find that it was locked.

_Fuck that,_ Yusuke thought and kicked the door open. He walked inside and the first thing he saw was a young brunette dressed in a smaller and tighter version of a maid's uniform. He was surprised when he recognized her, since she looked so different from when he'd last seen her. Her eyes seemed so old, so out of place on a face so young and beautiful. "Shizuru?"

"Yusuke?" Shizuru asked.

"I'm surprised you recognize me," Yusuke remarked. "Even Keiko didn't recognize me and she's known me for a long time."

"I overheard Sakyo and Toguro talking about you," Shizuru replied. "An undead Spirit Detective accompanied by a mystical crow slaughtering demons."

"So this is what they did to you," Yusuke mused. "They got you working as a maid."

"It's worse than that," Shizuru corrected quietly. "This is just the costume he likes me to wear."

Yusuke reached out to gently touch Shizuru's face and was instantly awash in mental images.

_"You belong to me now," Sakyo had said to her when he brought her to his base on Hanging-Neck Island._

_"Never!"__ Shizuru had shouted. "You bastard! I'll never forgive you for what happened to my brother!"_

_"Perhaps not," Sakyo had mused as he advanced on the young woman, "but it won't matter in the long run."_

The rest of the images were blurry but clear enough to prove one thing to Yusuke: That bastard Sakyo had turned Shizuru into his living sex doll. The very thought of it made the "living" wraith want to kill someone or something.

"I'm sorry . . . for what he put you through," Yusuke finally spoke. "And I'm sorry I couldn't stop them sooner. If I'd just been strong enough, none of this would have happened."

"You're strong enough now," Shizuru said, "so don't waste time on regrets."

"You haven't changed one bit," Yusuke remarked. He unhooked the sheathed Kukri knife from his waistband and threw it to Shizuru. "Use it on that bastard Sakyo first chance you get."

A hard light entered Shizuru's brown eyes. Finally, she would make that scarred bastard pay for the hell to which he'd spent two years subjecting her.

"I'll see you later, Shizuru," Yusuke said. He kissed her on the cheek before diving out the shattered window with the crow following him. Landing agilely and unharmed on the ground, he stormed into the company parking lot and found Sakyo's extensive collection of expensive automobiles and motorcycles. He jumped on a black street bike and started it, backing it out of its parking space before driving out of the parking lot.

_Watch out, Toguro, because I'm coming for your punk ass,_ he thought malevolently. _When I'm done with you, you'll be begging me to kill you._

Yusuke rode down to the docks, not stopping for anything, not even the police sirens.

"I don't have time for this shit," he mumbled to himself as he removed a hand from the handlebars of the motorcycle and pointed a glowing black finger at the police cars behind him in the gun-firing pose. "This is your one warning, motherfuckers: Step the fuck off or I shoot!"

The police cars kept pursuing him. Rationally, Yusuke knew they had no choice in what they were doing, as they were being forced to work for the demons. However, he was not willing to play games with them . . . not when Keiko's life was at stake.

"Spirit Gun," he whispered menacingly as the black energy exploded from his finger and struck the engine of the police car immediately behind him, causing the car to explode. The police officers inside didn't even have time to escape; the attack came so fast. As for Yusuke, he just kept riding as the remaining police cars chased him.

"Requesting back-up," an officer spoke into his radio. "I repeat, requesting back-up."

"Back-up's on its way," the response came.

Soon enough, Yusuke was being pursued by a battalion of police cars as well as police helicopters. He pushed his stolen motorcycle to its maximum speed of 150 mph but the police just wouldn't let up.

"Fuck this," Yusuke snarled. "I warned the bastards. Shotgun Double Barrel." A barrage of dark spiritual bullets shot out of both fists, one fist aimed at the police cars on the ground and the other fist aimed at the police helicopters. The police cars exploded and the helicopters crashed around Yusuke while the humans inside were fatally perforated.

With the carnage behind him, Yusuke figured it would be smooth sailing from this point forward. However, he found himself facing a blockade of police cars and police officers armed with spirit-powered automatic rifles.

"Yusuke Urameshi, you are to cease and desist immediately," the head officer, a bat demon, spoke through a megaphone.

Yusuke didn't stop; he just rode straight at the blockade.

"That's it!" the head officer roared. "You worthless maggots, blow his ass to hell!"

The police officers fired yellow energy bullets out of their automatic rifles, all of them at Yusuke. The energy bursts impacted hopelessly against Yusuke's stolen motorcycle, some of them managing to strike him but not doing any real damage to him. Yusuke cracked the throttle on the motorcycle and popped a wheelie before leaping over the officers and their cars. The officers fired up at him but Yusuke flipped off his motorcycle and rained down a hail of Spirit Gun bullets on them.

Yusuke landed on the ground and fired a Shotgun blast that spared no one, like a wall of death closing in on its targets. When all the police officers, including the demonic head officer, were dead he flipped over the wrecked cars and landed on the motorcycle, riding to the docks.

Meanwhile, the helicopter carrying Toguro and Keiko landed on a very painfully familiar island . . . Hanging-Neck Island.

_No,_ Keiko thought. _Not here again. This is where I lost Yusuke for the second time._ Her dark thoughts were interrupted when Toguro pulled her out of the helicopter and began walking to the restored arena, dragging her behind him the whole time.

"Here we are again," the sunglasses-wearing ex-human remarked as soon as they were inside. "Brings back memories, doesn't it, Keiko?"

As Keiko was still gagged, she could only glare at Toguro with the full force of her hatred for him. Toguro just smirked at her and removed her gag, enabling her to speak.

"Yusuke's coming for you, you know," she spat at him.

"Know it? I'm _counting_ on it," Toguro replied calmly. "My plan wouldn't work without him here."

"And what are you going to do, kill him here?" Keiko asked. "You already did that and guess what? He's back and he's going to shut down your sick little demon regime."

Toguro snickered. "You really do have faith in that undead delinquent. Believe it or not, Keiko Yukimura, he's not nearly as all-powerful as you seem to think he is." He grinned evilly and looked into Keiko's chocolate-colored eyes. "I know his one weakness . . . or should I say . . . his _two_ weaknesses."

"And what would those be?" Keiko asked defiantly.

"You're one," Toguro replied. "Kidnapping you has made him even more determined to put an end to me and his anger combined with his supposed invincibility makes him reckless. The other weakness is that lump of feathers that used to be his Spirit Beast. Without its power fueling him, he'll be mortal again and much weaker than I am."

"He'll still beat you," Keiko insisted fiercely. "Yusuke's a lot tougher than you think."

"Your devotion would touch me . . . if I still had a heart that could be touched," Toguro stated. "As to what I have planned for your beloved Detective, I have cameras installed all over this arena. When he enters, my man will turn them on and they'll broadcast our final battle all over the world. I will kill Yusuke Urameshi . . . with the world watching . . . and they will know to fear me."

"I don't believe you for an instant," Keiko declared. "Here's a thing you should know about humans, since you used to be one: We don't take kindly to dictators. No matter what you do to us, we'll find a way to rise up and beat you."

Toguro did not immediately reply to Keiko, instead taking her to a ringside seat and forcibly seating her before chaining her wrists and ankles. Keiko struggled fiercely the whole time, even after she was chained.

"You're very energetic," Toguro remarked. "No wonder Yusuke loves you so much." He smirked when he saw blood seep out from under the chains that bound Keiko's wrists. "I'd advise you to stop struggling. You'll hurt yourself."

Keiko growled at Toguro and let loose with a volley of curses that made the demon smirk.

"I see you've been taking English lessons from your boyfriend," he remarked. It took only one look at her eyes to see the hope that burned in them. _Such hope shouldn't exist. There is no hope for her, for that damned undead human freak, and certainly not for anyone else. Well, I know how to take care of that._

He reached out to Keiko and stroked her hip, slowly moving his hand up to her waist, edging closer and closer to her breast before he finally grasped it. Keiko struggled in his grip as he felt her up. "Now, now, Keiko," Toguro whispered. "I don't see why we can't have a little fun before your boyfriend shows up."

"Actually, I can think of a good reason," a cold hard voice growled from the entrance to the arena.

Keiko's eyes once again lit up with hope. "Yusuke!"

"Hey there, Keiko," Yusuke greeted with a wintry smile. "Toguro, get your filthy hands off my girl . . . or else."

"Or else what, Yusuke?" Toguro asked. "You'll kill me? I've gotten stronger over the last two years, so don't think I'll be as easy as the others you've dispatched."

"I'm gonna tear you apart, piece by piece," Yusuke threatened. "I was going to kill you with just one shot, but that was before you started molesting Keiko. Now I'm gonna have to make it nice, slow, and painful." As he made his threat, he strode into the arena, his black trench coat trailing behind him and his eyes blazing red like hellfire. His crow flew to a perch near Keiko.

"So nice to finally see you again," Toguro said, releasing Keiko and stepping into the ring.

"Ready to die, you bastard?" Yusuke asked as he stepped into the ring on the opposite side of Toguro.

"I should ask you the same question," Toguro replied. "Then again, you've already died twice. What's a third time to you?"

"There won't be a third time, you son of a bitch," Yusuke snarled. "You're going to your grave, the same grave you should have been put in a long time ago."

"Like I told you before, I've gotten a lot stronger over the last two years," Toguro stated. "Eighty percent of my power should be enough to deal with you." He threw off his trench coat and powered up to eighty percent of his strength, his muscles enlarging to freakish levels.

"Eighty percent," Yusuke sneered. "You tried that on me before and that didn't work. You really think you're that much stronger than me, do you?" He threw his own trench coat off and shifted into a fighting pose. "Come on, Toguro . . . come on!"

Toguro charged at Yusuke and punched downward, intending to shatter Yusuke's skull. However, he didn't anticipate Yusuke disappearing from his field of vision.

"Where the fuck did you go?" he asked.

As he pondered that question, he felt a tap on his massive shoulders. Toguro turned around and found himself face to face with a coldly grinning Yusuke. Then he found himself on the receiving end of a vicious punch that sent him flying out of the arena.

Yusuke grinned at the Toguro-shaped hole he'd made in the arena roof. He turned to Keiko and walked toward her, only to get interrupted by the sound of Toguro leaping back into the ring.

"Not through with me yet, are you?" Yusuke remarked in a tone devoid of surprise. "Here I am with my back to you, unguarded, a perfect target. Why don't you take your shot?"

"I don't take those kinds of shots, Yusuke," Toguro replied. "You should know me better than that. Now turn around and face me like a man."

"You're one to talk about facing your opponents like a man . . . when _you're not even a man at all!_" Yusuke roared, his aura blazing a mix of shadowy violet, pitch black, and blood red. "You gave that up so you could have immortality, so you could be young and strong forever and not have to worry about dying."

"I am not the only one in this ring who has defied death," Toguro answered calmly. "The crow that sits by Keiko is the evidence of your own defiance of death. We are the same, you and I. We've both transcended the human limits of life and death to become something more than what we used to be. You have no more claim to humanity than I do, remember that."

"At least I remember what being human was like!" Yusuke snapped. "And I won't let go of it! I won't run away from my humanity like you did!" He pointed his index fingers at Toguro like guns and declared his attack, "Spirit Gun Automatic."

Bursts of black energy came forth from both fingers, relentlessly pelting Toguro. Since Toguro no longer had his older brother with him, he couldn't use him as a shield to block Yusuke's attacks and had to rely on his own arms.

"Does it hurt, motherfucker?" Yusuke asked angrily.

"Not as much as this will hurt you," Toguro replied as he charged at Yusuke through the hail of black energy bullets and punched him in the face. The punch hit him so hard that it snapped his neck.

"Yusuke!" Keiko cried out in horror.

However, Yusuke wasn't dead. He turned his head, cracking his neck back into place without the use of his hands. "Motherfucker, please. Is that the best you can do?"

Keiko was both relieved and frightened at that small demonstration of Yusuke's power. On the one hand, it was cool to have a boyfriend that could survive getting his neck broken, but it was somewhat scary to watch.

Beneath his sunglasses, Toguro's eyes widened in surprise and horror. "What the hell are you?"

"Me? I'm the black angel of vengeance," Yusuke replied. "I am death personified, a death long in coming and richly deserved."

"This is going to take a lot more than I thought it would," Toguro murmured. He stepped away from Yusuke and powered down to his normal form before powering all the way up to one hundred percent of his strength, his skin taking on a gray and rocky appearance. "Time to die, Yusuke." Something shifted under the skin of Toguro's arm before emerging as an organic bullet that Toguro fired at Yusuke.

Yusuke's response was to smack the bullet aside.

"Been there, done that," he sneered. "Try again."

"I hope you remember that I have an infinite supply of these organic bullets," Toguro responded. With that said he fired a barrage of organic bullets, one after another in extremely quick succession. Moving in what special effects experts would describe as "bullet time," Yusuke dodged Toguro's organic bullets.

"My turn," Yusuke snarled once Toguro saw the futility of his organic bullet technique. "Shotgun." Yusuke fired a barrage of Spirit Gun bullets in the form of a tightly concentrated wave, punching a hole in Toguro's stomach.

"You hurt me," Toguro growled.

"No shit, Sherlock," Yusuke snarled. "Now I'm gonna kill you, nice, slow, and piece by piece like I promised." He pointed his glowing finger at Toguro. "Burning Spirit Gun." He fired a blast of flaming black energy at the demon, connecting with his arm and forcefully severing it from his body. The Necrotic Energy that powered Yusuke caused the severed arm to rapidly decay into nothing.

Toguro resisted the temptation to roar in agony when Yusuke severed his left arm with his Spirit Gun. He would not give Yusuke the satisfaction of hearing his pain.

"I'm not through with you yet, motherfucker," Yusuke snarled as he lunged at Toguro and began viciously beating him with his fists. Each blow was delivered with enough force to kill a weaker demon. "Die, fucker, die!"

Keiko watched in horror as the man she loved brutally took his fury out on the man who had once killed him. That horror only increased when he stepped back from Toguro and pointed his finger at him in preparation to use the Spirit Gun. She saw a hellish glint in Yusuke's eye that scared her deeply.

_What has happened to you, Yusuke?_ Keiko wondered in anguish. _You were never this cruel to your enemies before. And now . . . it's like you're looking forward to hurting Toguro._

"Shocking Spirit Gun," Yusuke commanded, firing an electrified bolt of black energy at Toguro. The dark electricity literally shocked the former human. "Feel that, you son of a bitch? One million volts. That would be enough to kill most people, but you're not most people." Yusuke blasted him again, this time upping the voltage to two million.

_He's enjoying this,_ Keiko realized with a deep terror in her heart. _He's causing Toguro pain and he's liking it! What has happened to you, Yusuke?_

_It's__ vengeance,_ the crow once known as Puu responded in her thoughts. _Yusuke is not just fighting for himself. He is fighting for Kuwabara, Shizuru, Genkai, his mother, you, and everyone else who has been hurt by this fiend. His cruelty comes from his anger at how this fiend has made you all suffer._

Toguro growled in a mixture of pain and rage. How could this happen? How could this undead teenager get the better of him? How?

_I will not let this punk beat me,_ he vowed angrily. He summoned an organic bullet and fired. However, he wasn't aiming at Yusuke . . .

. . . but at Keiko.

"No!" Yusuke screamed, racing toward Keiko to save her. However, the crow beat him to it, flying to take the organic bullet through its chest. He felt his increased spiritual powers leaving him as the crow bled its lifeblood onto the ground.

"Yusuke!" Keiko cried out.

Yusuke glared at Toguro and charged up a Shotgun. This time, the Shotgun was its original blue color instead of black. He fired it at Toguro, but it didn't do as much damage as it should have.

"Pathetic, Yusuke," Toguro said. "But what else can I expect from you now that you're human again? You're beneath me now. Die." He fired an organic bullet at Yusuke and this time, Yusuke couldn't react in time to dodge.

Yusuke gasped in pain as the organic bullet hit him. The pain only got worse when Toguro charged him and punched him in the gut with his remaining fist. Yusuke collapsed on his knees and fell on his stomach.

"Already out of it?" Toguro asked. "Shows just how pathetic you are without that lump of black feathers to assist you." He began firing a barrage of organic bullets at Yusuke's back, relishing Yusuke's screams of pain. "How does it feel to be helpless and vulnerable, Yusuke?"

Keiko watched in horror as Yusuke was shot to within an inch of his life. If she could see his back, she had no doubt that it would be bloody and raw.

"When will all this end?" she asked softly. "When will all this death and destruction be over?"

Toguro grabbed Yusuke by the hair and stared into his red-brown eyes. "Ready to go back to your grave?"

"Fuck you," Yusuke replied.

"No," Toguro countered. "Fuck _you._ And just so you know, I'm going to fuck your little girlfriend straight to her grave. She can find you in Spirit World. Then again, maybe she'll be too ashamed to go near you. Good-bye, Yusuke."

Then he snapped Yusuke's neck, killing him.

"NO!" Keiko screamed when she saw Toguro kill Yusuke.

As Yusuke's spirit shook off the chains that bound him to the earthly plane, he was filled with sorrow. _I failed you all. Keiko, Kuwabara, Shizuru, Genkai, Mom, Puu . . . I'm so sorry._

_Do not say that,_ a voice whispered to him. _Are you so weak that you're just going to give up already?_

_I'm dead, dipshit,_ Yusuke growled. _Not much I can do. And who the fuck are you?_

_My name is Raizen,_ the voice replied. _I am your ancestor._

_Ancestor?_ Yusuke echoed.

_Let me explain,_ Raizen replied. _I am a demon. Centuries ago, I ravaged human villages and ate the flesh of the mortals I killed. One day, I was injured during a battle and a female human doctor nursed me back to health. We fell in love and I vowed that I would never again eat human flesh. Despite the fact that not eating human flesh caused me to wither over the centuries, I kept my word. We had a daughter together, beginning the long ancestral line that eventually led to you._

_So I've got some demon blood in me?_ Yusuke deduced.

_Yes,_ Raizen confirmed. _You are mostly human, but you carry some of my blood in your veins. That blood is part of the reason why you were such a proficient fighter even before you discovered your spiritual powers. And now you have an opportunity._

_An opportunity to do what?_ Yusuke asked.

_I can restore your life,_ Raizen replied, _but only by awakening the demon blood that runs through your veins. You will be alive once more, but you will not be human anymore._

_You mean I'll become a demon like you?_ Yusuke deduced.

_Yes,_ Raizen verified.

_No fucking way!_ Yusuke shouted.

_Consider what will happen if you don't become a demon,_ Raizen spoke calmly. _Toguro__ will rape the girl you love and then kill her. After that, he will be free to continue on the evil path he has chosen. He will wipe out all human life, as well as the demons that oppose him. Do you want that to happen?_

_No, but . . ._ Yusuke started to say but was cut off by Raizen.

_No "buts," _the ancient demon said. _Either you accept my offer or you don't. Just remember which way points to salvation and which way points to damnation._

_Ok, ok, you got yourself a deal!_ Yusuke conceded. _But if I start eating human flesh, I'm kicking your sorry ass!_

_Agreed,_ Raizen said.

In the real world, Toguro walked over to Keiko and held her by her chin. "Now let's have some fun, just you and me," he whispered.

Keiko glared at him with eyes full of anger and hate. "You bastard," she spat.

Toguro just grinned cruelly at her and bent down to kiss her. However, he never got to kiss her, as he sensed a rising dark aura. He turned to the direction from which he felt the aura and gasped in surprise, shock, and horror.

It was Yusuke, but very different from how Toguro had last seen him. Specifically, his skin was deathly white and his eyes were now a hellish crimson. His hair was long and wild, some of it partially obscuring his eyes. His black muscle shirt was gone, exposing black demonic markings on his toned chest and arms. The crow emblem and black lipstick were gone from Yusuke's face, replaced by demonic markings underneath his eyes.

"How did you come back?" Toguro asked.

"What's the matter, Toguro?" Yusuke asked coldly. "Scared?"

Toguro laughed. "You've become a demon, just like me. And weren't you the one ranting about holding onto your humanity before?"

"This body and its powers are necessary," Yusuke replied. "I cannot allow your evil to continue. For the sake of all your victims, I will end your sorry life!"

"Just try it, Yusuke," Toguro challenged.

Yusuke suddenly blinked out of sight. Toguro had only a fraction of a second to wonder where Yusuke had gone before feeling a brutal right cross to his face, twisting his neck abnormally and sending him flying through the arena wall.

"Yusuke?" Keiko asked, startled by his new appearance.

Yusuke turned to her and smiled. "Yeah, babe. It's me."

"But how?" Keiko asked. "I thought Toguro had killed you."

"He did," Yusuke replied. "Let's just say I've got a benefactor who had an interest in keeping me alive. By the way, Toguro's about to come back."

Toguro stormed back into the arena, his neck wrenched back into place and looking very angry.

"Yusuke," he growled. "It looks like I can't afford to play with you anymore." His form mutated further, signaling that he was summoning even more strength.

"You think that's going to save you from me?" Yusuke asked coldly. "That trick only worked when I was human . . . and as you can clearly see, I'm not human anymore. Do your worst, Toguro. I'll give you one chance to kill me, since you're so strong. I won't attempt to defend myself; I'll just let you hit me. If you can't kill me with that hit, then you're a fucking dead demon."

Toguro glared at Yusuke. _That smug little bastard dares to mock me. Well, I will teach him what happens to those who mock me._ With that thought firmly in mind, he charged at Yusuke with his fist pulled back; ready to knock his head off.

Unfortunately, he didn't quite get to knock Yusuke's head off. Sure, his punch connected and true to his word, Yusuke didn't attempt to defend himself. Despite this, Yusuke's head remained firmly attached to his shoulders and he didn't seem to be much worse for wear.

"Pathetic," Yusuke sneered as his aura shaped itself into a black phoenix. Toguro gaped as he realized that the phoenix-like aura was Puu, the Spirit Beast-slash-guardian crow that he had killed. Not much good that had done him, he mused to himself.

"To think that I once feared you," Yusuke murmured as he raised a fist full of smoky black-and-violet aura. "But it's clear you're beneath me, you bastard. Time to die." He pointed his finger at Toguro's head as the smoky aura concentrated at its tip. "Spirit Gun."

Strangely enough, Toguro seemed almost grateful when Yusuke fired his Spirit Gun, as if he had at last found some deliverance. He was almost smiling as the Spirit Gun blasted his head apart in a mess of blood and brains and his body collapsed on the hard arena floor.

"It's over," Yusuke murmured. It was at that moment that Kurama, Hiei, Jin, Touya, and Rinku appeared in the arena. Kurama and Jin went to unchain Keiko.

"Seein' a pretty lass like you tied up brings to mind some rather dirty fantasies that I'll be a gentleman and not repeat," Jin remarked.

Yusuke growled angrily at Jin.

"Aw, come on, bloke, you know you were thinking it too!" Jin tried to defend himself.

"I assume that's what's left of Toguro, right?" Touya stated. "Good. He deserved every last second of pain you gave him."

"Your aura feels different, Yusuke," Kurama said. "More like a demon's than a human's, and like that of an S-class demon at any rate."

Hiei chuckled in amusement. "Yusuke. How does it feel to be superior?"

In Spirit World, Toguro found himself before Enma Daioh.

"Toguro, you have done much evil since you became a demon," Enma stated. "You have murdered, pillaged, and conquered entire lands. However, it is also true that you have done much good as a human. And in balancing the good and evil that you have done over your life, I have decided that you are not quite deserving of hell. You can go to purgatory, if that is what you wish."

"Thank you, but no," Toguro replied. "Hell is what I deserve for my sins and hell is where I'm going. However, I do have one request being going to my eternal punishment."

"And what would that be?" Enma asked.

"I want Genkai to return to her life, to have it to live over again," Toguro replied.

"I believe that request is within my vast power to grant," Enma stated.

"Thank you," Toguro said before walking through the gateway that would set him on the path to hell. As he walked down that lonely road, he found himself confronted with the young Genkai, dressed exactly as she had been during that fateful Dark Tournament fifty-two years earlier.

"You were planning this, weren't you?" Genkai stated bluntly. "You wanted Yusuke to kill you all along, didn't you?"

"He was the only one strong enough to do the job," Toguro replied. "You've heard, haven't you?"

"That I'm going to get to live my life again?" Genkai answered. "Yes. What was your purpose for all this? What were you looking to accomplish?"

"When I killed Yusuke the first time, it was to punish him for not being able to kill me," Toguro explained. "When I discovered that he had returned as an avatar of the crow, I hoped that I would finally get the death I sought. And he delivered." He smiled sadly at Genkai before going on. "When you return to Yusuke, help him. He may be demon in body and blood, but his soul is still human. Make sure it stays that way. Make sure he never ends up like me."

Genkai looked Toguro in the eye, silently promising him that no matter what happened, Yusuke would never be corrupted by his demonic power.

One year later, a demon named Shinato sat in his mansion watching with a sense of trepidation as his B-class bodyguards were slaughtered by Spirit Ops, the black ops team of Spirit World. Before, Spirit World and Demon World had existed in a tenuous balance. However, Toguro and Sakyo's conquest of Japan via the influx of demons from Demon World had forced the ruler of Spirit World to stop playing nice with the rulers of Demon World.

Shinato groaned with a mixture of sadness, resignation, and anger.

_If only Toguro hadn't allowed himself to be killed by that bastard Spirit Detective-turned-demon Yusuke Urameshi,_ Shinato thought. _Certainly doesn't help things that Sakyo got himself stabbed to death by his little slave._

He'd learned enough about Spirit Ops to know that they were a team that wasn't constrained by the rules that had governed relations between the three worlds. Their only objective was to rid Human World of the demons that had taken over. Beyond that, Spirit World didn't care how they got the job done.

The white-haired demon lord's musings were interrupted by the arrival of Spirit Ops, which consisted of Yusuke, Kurama, Hiei, Jin, and Touya.

"Demon traitors," Shinato sneered. "Are you going to kill me now?"

"Yes," Yusuke replied, his hellish red eyes glinting coldly as he pointed his finger at Shinato's head, prepared to fire his signature attack.

The End

End Notes: So how did you like this story? I know some or many of you may have wanted a more definite ending, but I like this kind of ending. It makes you think about what might have happened afterward. Thank you, Wolf God, for giving me the idea for this story in the first place and thank you, reviewers, for sticking with me throughout the production of this story. Rest assured that I am not done with fan fiction yet and I will keep writing it until the real world prevents me from writing anymore.


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